I'm SO Freaking Unorganized

In an hour and 45 minutes, we will go to Ted's brother and sister-in-law's home to celebrate Christmas. I knew that this was coming up. I also knew that it was AFTER Christmas Day. And Christmas Day happened to be our nephew's birthday, niece Kelly's husband. Therefore, I sort of let things slide.

So here I sit, writing a post about my total procrastination. I'm not ready AT ALL. In fact, I'm sitting on the edge of the bed, still in my nightshirt. The bed isn't made. I'm obviously not dressed. (For those of you following my personal hygiene, I took a shower last night before I went to bed.) We always give money to the nieces and nephew, but the cards aren't ready yet. Hey, at least I have the proper denomination of bills! Since Neal's birthday was Christmas Day, I need to dig into my card box and find an appropriate card and slide money into that too. Then there's Michael, our adorable 9 month old nephew. He gets real gifts to open! Of course they are still scattered about the bedroom. In fact, I had a few of them stashed away in my closet, and just sent out the "search and rescue team" to find them. Fortunately the "team" was successful and I let out a huge appreciative sigh. However, I still need to either wrap them or put them into gift bags.

So why am I sitting here, typing away? BECAUSE I WANT TO, THAT'S WHY. Heck, it's Christmas Break and I'm trying to do what I want to do, as much as possible.

Have I mentioned lately that I love my husband? He does the grocery shopping and he was there bright and early this morning. That man is wonderful! If I had to face shopping on top of getting ready for Tim and Patty's, I'd probably go over the edge.

I guess I've procrastinated long enough...time to get my act together!

Peaceful

I've complained about Christmas for a long time, how there is so much pressure on us (especially women). We've got to find the perfect holiday card, decorate the tree perfectly, have the house look perfect, find the perfect gift for those hard-to-buy-for relatives, wrap them up perfectly, and have the perfect cookies, along with creating the perfect meal for Christmas dinner.

Well...with encouragement from Ted, I'm feeling sort of peaceful right now, even content. There were some changes this year.

Joey and Alex put the tree up under my direction. They decorated the tree when I wasn't even around. I decided that for this year, I would not fill the house with all the beautiful Christmas decorations that I have. Life will go if I don't go all out, I'm sure of it. Then the other day (and this was a total shock) Ted said that I didn't even need to make cookies. He said this as we were going to bed, and I thought that he would forget that he said it by morning, but he didn't. In the morning, he said, "Now remember, you're NOT making cookies this year! It's just too much for you to do."

I love that man.

I finished wrapping gifts yesterday.

Today I did laundry and cleaned the kitchen, including cleaning out the refrigerator. Then this evening we made meatballs for wedding soup. Right now I've got a chicken cooking for the broth. But this is going to be just for us.

We are NOT hosting any holiday gathering this year. For my side of the family we're going to spend Christmas day at my cousin's home, about an hour and 15 minutes away. For Ted's family, I just didn't make a move to invite everyone here. I knew someone else would have to step up to the plate, and today they did. U.T. called and invited us all over to their house next Sunday to exchange gifts. Although he DID mention New Year's Eve... we're going out to dinner with A.P. and U.T., Ted's sister and her husband, niece Kelly and her husband and young son. I made the reservation back in mid November, thank goodness. Tim mentioned on the phone that he didn't know what we'd be doing after dinner...maybe go to someone's house. I did NOT offer our house, but when I think about it, I'd rather be here than anywhere else.

Anyway, I just feel peaceful about this holiday right now. I'm looking forward to tomorrow and spending the day with my family. Ted took the day off and that's nice that he can be here too.

Now this is what it's supposed to be about.

A Profound Statement

Yesterday morning, around 5:45 am, I was getting up to get ready for school. I had two gift bags next to me, ready to take with me. I had spent part of Thursday evening getting the tissue paper to look right, and getting the gifts in the bags the way I wanted them in. The card table is set up in our bedroom and there is "stuff" all over it: tape, ribbon, scissors, receipts, wrapping paper, tissue paper, gift bags, tags, lists, you name it. All around the floor are boxes, more tissue paper, more wrapping paper, gifts yet to be wrapped, Christmas cards, plastic bags, etc.

Ted was also getting up for the day and as he sat on the edge of the bed, he looked at me and said, "You don't really get to enjoy Christmas, do you?"

Wow....I think he gets it now.

I've Had it

All this Christmas crap is for the birds. All I really want to do is enjoy the season and that hasn't happened for years.

It's already a well-known fact that I don't like to shop. I love to look at decorations. I have a bunch of Christmas trees here, all in their boxes or bags in the basement, except one. The music is absolutely wonderful. Many of the television shows and movies are fantastic. But there is a severe lack of TIME to do all that I want to do during the holiday season.

I made a decision yesterday and I'm going to stick by it, at least for this year. It will make my life so much simpler.

The ONLY decorations that will be put up in our house this year will be our tree. And it's been up for a week. At least this one has. Our other tree, that we only used for a couple of years, looked like CRAP, so last Saturday I bought a new one. The old one is back in the box and the new one is up. However, there are no decorations on it, except the lights that came with it. Oh yeah, and an ornament that I purchased when I was out doing some shopping the day after Thanksgiving. I have four really cute "kitchen" Santas, but they're not going up this year. I have a darling "kitchen" themed little tree, but it's not going up this year either. I have a beautiful white tree that is not going up. I have a tall, skinny tree that's not going up. I have more trees and tons of decorations, but NOTHING else is going up...except for the ornaments on the tree that's already standing...and who knows when that will happen??

Have I mentioned yet that I really don't like the hoopla surrounding Christmas??

Fortunately we're hosting NO holiday get-togethers...at least none that I know of at this time. That alleviates a lot of the pressure.

I would like to do some baking, but haven't gotten to it yet. It was supposed to be yesterday, but that just didn't quite happen. It won't happen today either, because I have laundry to do. Having Friday off really was a big help...I was able to more or less wrap up the shopping. I still have a few things to take care of, but they can't be done until closer to the actual day.

I would love to take time out to go see our local production of the Nutcracker. I've never done that and I've always wanted to. They're doing it several times, so I should be able to fit one of those show times into my schedule, but I'm sure I won't get to it.

Enough complaining on my part...I'm off to the laundry room to get started on that lovely weekly task.

Christmas Countdown, Bah Humbug

Christmas shopping - about 80% complete (have I mentioned that I absolutely LOVE online shopping???)

Christmas cards - purchased and still in the boxes; I have the stamps though!

Christmas tree - up, but not decorated

Christmas decorations - still in boxes in the basement

Christmas wrapping - are you really supposed to WRAP gifts??? Hey, at least I have wrapping paper in the house. That's a start...isn't it?

Christmas cookie baking - I have a list of the cookies that they all want me to bake, but haven't checked on the status of the ingredients yet

And people wonder why I don't like Christmas.

Sigh.

Let the Games Begin!

I'm really trying to get a start on this Christmas thing. It's no secret to many people that I do not like Christmas. I don't like the pressures associated with the perfect card, the perfect gift, the perfect wrapping paper, the perfect cookies, the perfect meals, etc.

Every year I try to get a step up on things. I start out with the best of intentions, but they quickly go by the wayside. About a week and a half ago, I did some shopping online, which is the ONLY way to do it in my opinion! This past Saturday and Sunday, I did some more shopping. Now not all of it is for Christmas, but some of it is.

Today I called Alex when I was on my way home from school and running errands and he said, "Mom, a whole BUNCH of boxes came in the mail today!"

When I got home, they were all piled in the foyer, and that's where they'll stay until I'm ready to deal with them too. My goal is to have all my holiday shopping done by the first week in November. Another goal is to start baking this weekend. We have a huge freezer, so I'll put it to good use.

These are my GOALS...and we all know that GOALS occasionally need to be revisited and revised!

All I want to do is enjoy the holiday season....just once.