It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

around Momma M's house.  We have our tree up, lights on the front of the house, and greens wrapped around the front porch banisters.  The kids have made the ornaments, and the gel clings are waiting to be put on the windows.
Before we started all this, I had the emotional battle of the ages.  What to do with Grandma's old oak round dining table?   We have justified it sitting in our living room these last few months by calling it a "library table."  It is right next to a floor to ceiling bookshelf after all.
When we bought my bright and shiny "new to me" table for my birthday in September we vowed that table would be out of the house by November 1st.   I  offered it to family right away.  I gave them the Nov. 1st pick-it-up-or-else deadline,  but no one had the magic combo of space & transportation.  So in my living room the table sat.  Then it started showing it's usefulness.  For starters, it gave people a place to temporarily park stuff like homework and mail by the door so our "real" dining table could be used for dining.  Then I had guests over a couple times in November, and it served as a beverage station. Kids played games on it on Saturday afternoons.  It seemed to have found a new role in our life.  Suddenly, Thanksgiving had flown by and I needed to get the tree up!  There was no way our huge tree and that table could both be in our living space.  It was time for one or the other to give.  Clearly it was time for the table to go, but no I just couldn't do it.  So we now have a 4.5 tree on top of a white lace tablecloth on our "library" table.  The ornaments the kids made are scattered around it.  The gel clings for the windows are resting under it. There might be a stray headband, or piece of homework or two, but it fits us.  My only thought after was "why didn't I think of this when we had toddlers?"