Running Backwards Up the “Up” Escalator

It’s that time of year again….

The time when you feel you’re running a marathon and you just can’t go another step.

 

The time when you feel the laundry continues to multiply like rabbits behind your back.

The time when you feel like you can’t possibly get all 326 errands done in the two hours you’ve set aside.

The time when you feel like a giant black cloud is following you around as you go into yet another store looking for that perfect gift.

We all feel it, including me, at this time of year.  It’s hard not to get caught up in all the running here and there and feeling like you need just one more gift under the tree. 

The last two weeks has been like this for me.   I taught six days out of the last ten school days and now I feel like I’m running backwards up the “up” escalator.   (I give my “gratitude and appreciation” award out to all working mothers today.  I really admire your planning and strength.) 

I know this time will pass and I’ll calm down this week as I tie up the loose ends that are sprawled about.  But, it’s difficult some days to feel like there is an end in sight to the pre-holiday chaos.  I understand what you’re feeling.  I really do.   

Since we’re quickly approaching the last 12 Days of Christmas, I hope that today you will take a few moments to sit down with a cup of something warm and sweet.  Get out your favorite pen and notepad and write down all those items floating around in your head. “Oh, I can’t forget to do this….or that.”

Jot them down and stick them on the fridge with your Christmas magnets that you forgot you had tucked away in the junk drawer and leave the list alone (at least until tomorrow).

Tomorrow you can tackle the list and feel organized, armed and ready to face the day of “to dos”.   I spent time making mine last night and it really made a difference in how I feel this morning…..a little lighter actually.

Sometimes it’s ok to slow down. It’s ok to enjoy the cookies that just came out of the oven.  It’s ok to listen to the holiday music while you fold mismatched socks.  It’s ok to cross off three things on your list because you decide it’s just not that important right now.  Slow down.  Breathe deeply.   Light a candle.   Enjoy this week.  

Merry Christmas

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas filled with family, friends and the like.

From our home to yours, Merry Christmas.

Christmas is Always on December 25th

I am a highly organized person.  My scissors go in the same spot when I’m done with them.  I have a candle shelf in the kitchen and our calendar is updated daily so we’re on time and prepared for anything. How is it then that Christmas seems to sneak up on me every year?  I know the date. Christmas is always on December 25th.  I know that December comes after November.  Why then do I always feel rushed and hurried the week before?

I have put more miles on my car in the last seven days than I do in a month.  I’m not kidding.  I’ve had to fill up my car twice in that time, when normally I only fill the car twice in a month! 

Oh, and did I mention that I don’t like shopping.  I know that’s strange coming from a woman, but I really could survive without it.   Now, don’t get me wrong, when it’s shopping for the sake of shopping and browsing at all the loveliness in the windows, I’m there.  When you “have” to find that certain something in a certain size in a certain color, just count me out.   It’s just stress I don’t need.  

Fighting for a parking spot with the 487,000 other shoppers; wearing your coat when it’s 4°F outside, but then having to mess with it inside the stores and feel all bulky and snowman like; then having to stand in line for 15 minutes just to pay for the item that probably won’t fit or be the “right” one, just IS NOT my idea of a good time.   I don’t care if there is a 20% off coupon in the paper that would save me a few dollars, I’m not going to leave the store, go buy a paper, then come back and try to find another parking spot just to save $7.53.  I just want to pay and get out. 

I have to change my strategy and not let this day sneak up on me again.   Starting in January, yes, January, I will be looking for gifts, paper napkins, stocking stuffers and each month focus on one person on the list and get it done.   I know there are people out there who do this already, but it will be a new goal for me.  I simply have to for my own sanity. 

I just want to make cookies, watch Christmas movies and enjoy being at home during the break and not worrying about one more trip to the post office or the mall.  (Oh, the mall.  Just don’t say it out loud and it will go away.)   Maybe next year will be a little less frazzled, less hurried and less running around.  A girl can hope, can’t she?

And So It Begins...

As of 49 minutes ago, we are officially on break from school and our normal routine.  I am looking forward to being at home, sleeping in a bit, Christmas of course, looking at Christmas lights in the neighborhoods, our niece coming to visit and all the activities that go along with being on vacation.  

But…

Nineteen days at home is a lot!  We’ll go to a movie, go bowling, probably do some tourist things with our niece and go to the zoo for the light display, have Christmas Eve and Day in there, but that’s good for about eight of the nineteen days.  What will we do for the other eleven? 

Ok, so two of those eleven will be spent finishing up shopping and buying groceries and preparing for guests.  That still leaves me with nine days to plan something for them to do.  Hmmm. 

Wait, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day are in there somewhere aren’t they?  YES!  That’s two more days.  All three boys (husband and kids) will be spending New Year’s at the YMCA for a tween lock in. My youngest and his friend will participate in the event and my oldest and my husband will be volunteering for the whole night. They’ll be working/playing from 5:00PM until 8:00AM the next day, and then come home and sleep all day. So that leaves me with seven days.

Oh, I almost forgot, I get to gift four of those days to Nani and Grandpa since my husband won a trip to the Sugar Bowl and he’s taking yours truly!  I can’t wait.  Four days spent together in a beautiful hotel and dinners and events to attend AND I don’t have to cook!  What could be better?  If you know me, not having to cook is the ultimate gift! So how many days am I down to now?   Three, I believe. 

Well, let’s just leave those up for some good ‘ole spontaneity!   I’m sure it will go by quickly, but it just seems like a long time, looking at it from this side of the nineteen days.  I might just need a vacation after my vacation.  Whatever the time will bring, I’m sure we will enjoy the days off and laundry will get done, presents will get opened and love will be the theme.  Here’s to nineteen days and counting.

"That Was Fun"

There are some moments in life that may not be all “WOW” or “BAM” but they are still part of life and are still worthy of a picture or snapshot in the scrapbook (even if it is a digital scrapbook these days).  It seems like there are more and more of these moments for me lately.

Saturday I got to experience one of those moments with my oldest son.  He wanted to play in the annual Tuba Christmas concert they have every year downtown in the park.  None of his friends were doing it, but yet he still wanted to do it; such confidence and willingness to try new things. I love that about him.

He practiced in the nearby church basement with 113 other tubas, sousaphones, baritones and euphoniums for nearly ninety minutes.  The horns were decorated with lights and garland and everyone sat down with their hats, gloves and scarves ready to go.  The temperature for the concert was to be 28°F with winds 10-15 miles per hour.  I know.  But, he wanted to have the experience and so, we sat and practiced and waited for 4:00 PM to roll around.

The walk to the park was only a few blocks, but definitely gave us a taste of what was to come. Cold. 

We set up our lawn chairs right on the front row and watched the crowd begin to grow song by song.   I estimated there were about three hundred people in the park standing and singing wonderful carols accompanied by the warm and rich sound of the Tuba band.  It was an experience for him.  One more thing he can say he did when he was 14. 

By the end, we were chilled and the first moments of shivering were beginning to set in.  We walked back to the church to gather our things (and to run his hands under cold water to try and bring back normal body temperature to his fingertips) and then headed to the car.

“That was fun.”  For me, those three words were the highlight of the event. An entire Saturday dedicated to playing music and being part of something that no other 14 year-old did that day.  Life.  Experiences. Joy.   That was fun.

Extra Lights and a Cat Ornament

This is our first Christmas in our new house and so was excited to see what the house would look like all decorated.   I had thrown out several old and tattered decorations before we moved, then sold 50% of what décor I had left at our garage sale prior to the move and was still surprised by how much I have left over that I didn’t use. 

I put the remaining decorations in a plastic tub in the basement storage left to collect dust and be of no use, until today.

One of my friends is an angel.  Really, she is. (You can see her halo and wings when she’s not watching.) She has requested any extra Christmas décor to decorate a foster family’s tree tomorrow for five little girls that have never had a Christmas.   Never had a Christmas.

This just made my heart pound.  I had to do something.  I found the tree stand we used last year for our real tree (that I so desperately had to have and will probably never have another real tree again), found the box with all the extra lights in it and then remembered we had a whole box of teddy bears in the garage.  But were there five?

I went to the garage to look in the box and found four.   Rats!  My husband decided to check in the other box next to them and sure enough, there was one more bear.  Five!  They will each get a new home to five little girls who will love them and hold them.

A much better life than living in the garage in a box, don’t you think?  (God Wink don’t you think?  Five bears for five little girls?)

So tomorrow, I will get the joy of helping someone decorate their home so that they will have a  wonderful tree and decorations to share with their family just like the rest of us will.  It will be wonderful to look forward to.