And then, as our family also grew larger, I realized that my sanity requires simplicity. Decorating is fun, but whatever goes up must come down . . . soon. And it's hard to keep up. So I have been simplifying and scaling back holiday decorations for the last decade. A few Halloween and fall acknowledgements, maybe something with the Easter bunny on it in the Spring, and still plenty for Christmas (although I have edited my Christmas decorations significantly and have given away several tote boxes full of Christmas decorations also). And I have been perfectly happy with this arrangement.
Enter Mr. Joseph who, for most of his short life, has been obsessed with having a fully decked out home for every holiday. It just goes along with his exuberant personality. It doesn't help that our neighborhood goes ALL OUT for every holiday and even has contests to see which home has the best holiday decorations. Joseph is just sure that someday we will win. Ummmmm . . . not likely, but nobody tell him that.
So, for the last few years I have tried to accommodate his desire for holiday festiveness, especially in regards to Halloween/fall, for which my decorations had become very minimal over the years. He insists that we decorate for Halloween no later than October 1st - so we do. Last year I took him to the store and let him pick out $25 worth of tacky decorations which made him happy. And we put them all up, including the tacky window clings. This year we added to spooky festiveness with a collection of spiders and spiderwebs inside and outside the house, including one that is motion activated and drops down on you when you come to our door. Super cool, right? Joseph's absolutely dream is a big blowup decoration we saw at Home Depot - a huge black spider with beady yellow eyes that turns its head. It also cost $59, so I put him off and told him I would check it out post-Halloween to see if it goes on clearance . . .
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