Positive Christmas Kick-Off

This is usually the weekend Russ and Carter hate the most– the weekend that Christmas throws up at our house. They usually are a bit Grinchish about having to take boxes from the attic and helping out the tree up, but something happened today.  
Russ and I got up and got all the boxes down before Carter got up, but she did not know that. About eleven o’clock I got a cheerful text that she was awake, showering and then was coming up to help. This came without prompting. Something was awry.
I had decorated the living room, entry and dining room and Carter appeared with a smile and a hug letting me know how nice things looked. No Grinchy Grinch tone could be heard.
After some lunch, Russ and Carter got down the eight sections to the tree and happily spent two hours assembling it. Not a cross word was said, even when we put section B on instead of section C and they had to be taken apart.  
My responsibility in tree assembly is light connector and extension cord management. It is not a simple job with over 12,000 lights. Not 1,200 but 12,000. But that was last year. This year no less than 6 100 light strands had left this universe and had to be removed from the complicated way the lights are strung on the tree. I did not bat an eye and did not feel the need to replace them.
After the tree was up and lit I went to the movies, feeling better about the decorating progress and my families response to it. When I got home and resumed decorating Carter announced that she was going back to the attic to get her childhood bedroom tree and was going to put it up in her room this year. It has been at least seven years since she has decorated her room for Christmas.
I hope that all this holiday joy is a sign that it is going to be the best Christmas ever. I certainly feel like this is not the worst weekend of the year and for that I am very thankful.