Black Friday Night Lights

What I love about this time of year is the transition from the Autumn holiday of Thanksgiving to the magical Christmas of Winter. In our family this transition happens on Black Friday.
Many spend the day shopping - getting as many deals and steals as possible. For our family of five we spend the day decorating for Christmas!
On Thanksgiving night my husband heads to the attic and pulls down box after box of lights, garland, ornaments, and holiday decorations. The next day we begin our family traditions of turning our normally simple house into a magical holiday extravaganza!
My husband and son are in charge of hanging lights and garland outside and on the porch in an attempt to create an elegant scene for us to enjoy. My daughters help me inside the house. We put up the tree - telling stories of all the ornaments. We light the Christmas candles, turn the dining room into a warm, cozy atmosphere of red and green. We pull out or cookie book and begin deciding what we want to bake. We play holiday music, make hot cocoa, and spend time being thankful that we are all together.
By evening the decorations are hug, the lights twinkling, and the house transformed. We sit down on the couch, cuddle under an old family quilt and begin watching our first holiday movie of the season.
It's perfect - and one of my favorite holiday traditions.
Neena is a freelance writer, mother of three, and full time PhD students. When not writing for the Yahoo! Motherboard she can be found on her personal blog hooey!critic