"It's that time of year...

...when the world falls in love. Every song you hear seems to say 'Merry Christmas. May your new year dreams come true.' "

Okay, so new years isn't here, but Christmas in July is! Happy Christmas in July. Yup, July 25. Unfortunately, this year we haven't gone as crazy as we have in the past. The mellowness of the holiday is for two reasons:

1 - We got Jessie and she has us pretty busy in readjusting to a new way of living. However, we both decided that instead of buying each other presents, that the doggie would be our present. So although she isn't red and green and didn't come in a bow, we have been playing with our Christmas in July present all month long.

2 - The spells of heat have made us very lazy and trapped in our bedroom (aka the cold room). And when it isn't hot, we just want to sit in our living room and be lazy. Yes, we are a lazy family :)

We have done a few little things. We decorated cookies on Monday. We watched Love Actually a couple weeks ago. We like to watch It's A Wonderful Life on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day (in July and December). We didn't get home last night until late and we have group tonight, so it will have to wait until tomorrow. The only real thing on my list is that I want a picture of us with Jessie on her first Christmas in July. I'm not sure if she will let us do that.

For those of you who don't know our story and are wondering about this whole Christmas in July thing, this celebration is all about one thing: Tim and Melissa. The real Christmas in December is about the birth of our savior; Christmas in July is about Tim and Melissa. Two years ago, Timmy decided he did not like that I hated the holidays. He decided we would celebrate Christmas in July as a way of reclaiming holiday cheesiness for joy instead of sadness. We watched christmas movies all month. We listened to christmas music. We decorated. We set up a tree. We baked and decorated cookies. We sent out cards with our first official picture as a couple. We even went away for Christmas in July weekend and for our weekend trip to Connecticut, we remembered the miniature Christmas tree and our stockings full of gifts. Of course, the most important part of the month was "Christmas morning" and the present that awaited me at the bottom of my stocking. It was my ring.

This "Christmas in July" is the second anniversary of our engagement. So this morning when Timmy woke up to go to work, he leaned over, gave me a kiss, told me he loved me, and asked, "will you marry me?" Christmas in July is about us. It's a time for us to have fun and be silly. It's a time to reflect. For me, it's time to be even more grateful for Timmy. He is very intentional about reclaiming unhappy memories and situations and putting our stamp on them. Life is so much better with him. Well, it seems our Christmas in July present has to go outside and create her own present. Not as beautiful as a diamond, but it's the life we wanted and she herself is pretty darn cute :)