My mom called this morning to get Christmas gift ideas and sizes for my family. I’m not even ready to go there.
ACK.
I am in a post-holiday-pre-holiday anxious tizzy today…how about you? I still haven’t thrown out the god-awful cranberry sauce I made too much of and people are already posting pictures from the Christmas tree farm on Facebook. I’ve got two more carrot cake muffins to get through before I can even THINK about white chocolate peppermint bark.
Mmmm….now I’m thinking about white chocolate peppermint bark.
I figure, for every one of us out there getting the jingle on today–whether it’s by decorating or shopping or crafting or baking–there just might be a few of us who are cowering in the corner saying, “Oh CRAP. I am already way behind.” Right? Hello? Anyone? Bueller?
Baby steps, baby steps. I’m going to find my Michael Buble Christmas album out there in the cloud and see if it can ease me in to the spirit. And by “spirit” I mean “get me inspired to clean out a hole in the living room where we could squeeze in a tree among all the toys that are still there from LAST Christmas.”
I AM ready to make some commitments to keep the next 3 1/2 weeks a little less crazy:
- I will not bake. If I love you enough to give you cookies in the winter, I also love you enough to invite you over for a glass of wine on the deck when the weather is nice. Promise.
- I will not be crafting clever and lovely teacher gifts as a way to show the deep appreciation I have for my children’s teachers. I will slap some festive green cash in a thoughtful handwritten note and ask them to have a drink on me. I know my kids…these teachers could probably use a drink.
- I will not force my children to wear anything that is smocked or requires shoes that can’t get dirty. We are the same family in December that we are all year and we like Velcro and chocolate milk. I might even take a photo of us drinking chocolate milk and playing with our Velcro shoes.
- I will not allow the Elf on the Shelf to take over our home to early in the season, even if I can already hear him scratching around up in the attic.
So, in the words of Buddy the Elf, how are you feeling today: