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a kinder, gentler MiserWell if one of the Miser brothers was gay, my bet is on Heat Miser. He was the flaming one after all.
Need I say more? Look at that outfit!
can't beat his lyrics:
- she's 3.5y/o normally very shy, especially in front of people. She refused to dress up though - apart from a tinsel halo, DH said 'that's my girl, non conformist' - lol! Awwww... Good thing I put her in a cute, semi-white dress anyway! Soooooooo adorable!
Christmas tree/decorations/MUSIC/happiness/lights/colors/food. everything! oh and Christmas break! 
Coming home to the Christmas lights and the scent of it - tis so, so happy-making.
Ooh, tis much better now. Now there are lots under the actual tree for family. We've invited homeless people and people without anyone to come for Christmas (no-one should spend Christmas aloneHey you already have presents there...
), and those are presents for our guests. The paper under the tree is all sparkly and reflects the lights. That's happy-making, too, but I didn't want to sound like the presents are the important bit 
Yeppers, tis very much live!
The thought of having a dead tree is really sad. Silly, really. But watching it die after it's been so lovely and friendly during Christmas is like watching a friend die. Hate it. So it'll be planted in the garden after Christmas 
It's not Scrooge-like - it's how you feel. But I wish I could send you some of my excitement. I used to be too cynical (not the same as you, I knowNot at all~I used to enjoy the season as a kid; later after I left home and was in military I found out that every year my parents would go into debt for Christmas and then spend the rest of the year paying it off only to cycle into it again, and then eventually with other financial issues kept going deeper and deeper into debt. That has soured the entire "holiday" thing~and as I walk through stores and listed to people at church it seems that many do what my folks did. I've not followed in my parents steps, I've not created some fakey mysterious hollow holiday thing. My boys know I get them some presents and it's just not much more than that. It aggravates my wife to no end~I only wish Advent was at a different time of year, "Christmas" could be left as a secular/civic holiday of "presents and good cheer"...there's my scrooge speech
) to enjoy it and poured scorn on it all and thought I was being cool... but enjoying the tree, and early nights and twinkly Christmas lights and mulled wine and people being a little quicker to smiling - it all makes for such a pure sort of happiness that totally isn't based on money or stuff. 
Gregorian calendarness and commercialisation notwithstanding, tis all about Him 
