We have a lot of presents under the tree right now, and that makes me happy. Most of them are for relatives and will be carted away this afternoon to my mother-in-law’s house for her annual Christmas Eve dinner, but having them here now, all wrapped in shiny foil paper and tucked neatly under the fake pine needles, is perfection. Call me crazy, but I even splurged and spent a few more dollars for the fancy foil wrapping paper, fully aware that all forms of wrapping paper are wasteful and that it’s just going to get thrown out anyway, but I just wanted our presents to shine for the few days they sat under our tree.

And in case you couldn’t tell, our tree has a bit of a lobster theme this year. We switch up the decorations each year; a few years ago we did an international theme and then last year we did a Disney theme. I’m not sure if the fact that we have enough plush lobsters to decorate a tree is cute or downright creepy.

Still a bit of Disney influence with the Santa Mickey tree topper.

Santa Mickey reminds me of Santa Goofy, who used to be a part of Bryan and my Christmastime tradition until the super-ultra-awesome NYC World of Disney store on 5th Avenue closed and was replaced with a stupid dumb baby mall-style Disney Store in Times Square. The new store does not feature character greetings–or anything else cool, for that matter.

Memories of Christmases past

We still manage to infuse Disney into our holiday season, though:

(We just watched Wall•E last night. It’s not a designated holiday movie, but it does feature Christmas lights and brings up feelings of love, warmth, and overall happiness. Also, I’m now convinced that our George Foreman grill looks like an Axiom bot.)

Another Christmas tradition from days of yore that hasn’t carried over is going into Philly for the Wanamaker’s Lord & Taylor Macy’s light show. Instead, this year I went into the city with my friend Emma to see her cousin’s two-person show, Chlamydia for Christmas and Herpes for Hanukkah: More Sex-Ed Burlesque for the Holidays. Times have changed, I guess.

(Actual decoration in our house.)

When I was a kid, my parents took me every year to see Santa at G-Boys Garden Center in South Jersey. They have a walk-through Winter Wonderland, and it used to be the coolest thing ever. However “coolest thing ever” when you’re 8 does not carry over into adulthood, as Bryan and I found out a few weekends ago:

Display inside store

Doesn't exactly scream "Happy Holidays!"

A Disney fan's nightmare: A fake Pooh

We're not in Disney World anymore, Toto.

This is supposed to be Garfield.

Super hero or super lame?

To add insult to injury, if you wanted to see Santa, you had to go to a separate section and pay for a photo. Lame! I still got my picture with him, though.

Fake Santa was free.

I don’t know what gifts will come my way tonight and tomorrow, but one of the best things I received this season was this:

Our local farmers market ended in November, but one of the vendors returned a few Saturdays ago to give away free apples and cider to their loyal patrons. This bag has to weigh at least 8 pounds! It was so nice to have a taste of local produce again; in the few weeks since the market ended I had been eating imported apples from New Zealand. Let me tell you, nothing compares to a local apple. So crisp, so juicy, so FRESH! I’ll definitely be munching on one of these babies on the drive to my in-law’s house this afternoon.

Until then, time to squeeze in a walk before I stuff myself with all kinds of yummy food and cookies. Merry Christmas!