Christmas in February!

Yesterday morning, my husband took down the Christmas tree -- yes, that's right, on February 20th! My mom came to town this past Sunday and on Monday we were finally able to celebrate Christmas with her. She lives in Florida now, and she did not have a tree this year, so I had mentioned to my husband the idea of keeping one of our (artificial) trees up until Nana came up. He scoffed at the idea at first (he works in retail and feels they start the holiday season WAY too early, so he's ready to pack it up around Jan 1st), but on one of his days off after Christmas, he took the tree in the dining room down and left the one in the living room up! Nana was very surprised and touched when she saw the tree upon her arrival on Sunday.

Monday I put a roast in the crock-pot before heading off to work, and when I got home, I quickly put together shrimp cocktail and sides of mashed potatoes and asparagus and we were ready for our holiday dinner. We sat in the dining room and used the good china (just like we did on Christmas) and when I put some holiday cd's on the stereo and my husband heard the strains of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" he looked at me and said, "Really?" Yes, really! We had a nice dinner together and the kids (and Nana) got a kick out of hearing their favorite Christmas carols again.

After dinner we opened the presents we had been saving for each other, and for dessert we had homemade brownie sundaes -- it was quite festive for a Monday night in February! It's fun to be a little crazy sometimes and do the unexpected, especially if it will brighten someone else's day!