Littlebit got croup.  That’s like a bad track on repeat around here, isn’t it?  But, it seems mild and hopefully LB won’t miss any of the week’s fun.

I’m finishing up my final touches…

…helped along by super cheap poinsettias at the grocery.  In the years since Big Daddy and I have been married, my decor has started to evolve from mismatched to focused.  Lots of red with a little bit of aqua.

Thrown all together with some retro…

Shiny Brites from Grandma's tree

(sorry for the bad, flash picture. I tried to take it without the flash, but my camera actually laughed at me).

I am desperate to start baking, but I know that nothing I make now has a chance of making it to next week.  LB leads the cookie monster charge around this joint, but I can share my favorite sugar cookie recipe.  It calls for whipping cream, but the dough is super easy to work with and they taste spectacular.

Don’t hate me for bringing this up, but Christmas is coming. Thirteen days until the big day. Less than two weeks.

If you haven’t sent out your Christmas cards, it’s probably time. Just sayin’. Probably should mail gifts that need to be mailed as well. Most on-line shopping sites are listing their shipping cut off dates.

Hallmark.com is currently offering 30% off and will, stamp, address and mail your cards for you if you order by 12/19.

The next few days will be focused on getting the last of my list finished. And, by the way, I didn’t finish my stockings. LOL! That’s on my list too.

Christmas 2005

Left up on my to be completed yet?
1-Take the big girls shopping for Big Daddy
2-Stocking Stuffers!
3-Cleaning the house
4-Baking
5-Finding the damn zhu zhu pet accessories, though it appears that won’t happen so I need to find a gift each for the big girls as well as taking the Princess to get a gift for the Baby Bee
6-meeting all of my other gift giving obligations (giving tree gifts, teacher gifts, santa gifts for the girls for our Mom’s group Christmas party).
7-Getting the annual ornaments
8-Having Big Daddy find my box of Christmas books.
9-Making stockings
10-Grocery List for baking and Christmas Eve, Christmas morning and Christmas dinner
11-Seeing Santa

This is the Princess’s last week before school is out which means the majority of anything secret needs to be accomplished by this time. What’s left on your list? Do you have an idea? Are there things you might need to cut out to make sure that you get the important things done without stress? My ultimate goal is to spend the week before Christmas doing nothing but having fun, which means I have to get my to-do list finished this week.

A lot of people have written about how difficult they find Christmas. How much work there is and how that works seems to mask the joy they wish they could have. They feel stressed by material obligations and overwhelming traditions. Make your list today. Figure out the most important things you need to have done and do them. Forget the rest. If you don’t send out Christmas cards this year, it doesn’t matter. If you run out of time to make elaborate trays of cookies and make one batch of sugar cookies with your kids and buy the rest, it’s okay. I bet very few people will notice and you’ll be happier for it. I learned that lesson the hard way a time or two when I sat in tears on Christmas night feeling like I had missed every single good time in a relentless pursuit for something unattainable anyhow.

Snow Folks

Focus on the best parts. Skip the rest. The people who are “doing everything”? They’re probably not having that much fun. Make your list. Check it twice. Plan for reducing your work by half and increasing your fun by twice. You won’t be sorry.

I may write detailed lists.

I may make plans far in advance.

I may try to plan out every second and every minute but there is something to be said about being flexible and spontaneous.

So, the tree went up this weekend.  Yesterday to be exact.  A week earlier than I planned.  Big Daddy prefers that the Christmas tree not go up before his birthday, but we had a golden opportunity, a weekend full of nothing stretched out before us as so we went for it.

The Tannenbaum

We still have to get the annual ornaments for the girls.  It was a tradition both of our parents had; each year a new ornament for each kid for the tree and then upon moving out/marriage your ornaments are given to you as a gift.  I love hanging up the years of ornaments collected when I was a little girl and love seeing the years of the girls collected keepsakes show up on our tree.  I only got misty once; when hanging up Littlebit’s baby booties from her first Christmas.  Remember Littlebit as a baby waved over me and I ground away a few tears before returning to the task at hand.