This happens to me ever year – it gets to be 12 or so days before Christmas, and I’m suddenly launched into a panic about all the things I haven’t done yet. Like mail out Christmas cards or bake any cookies or, you know, BUY THE KIDS THEIR GIFTS.
It’s not like it happens at the same time every year and there are TV commercials and signs on store windows and reminders everywhere I turn that Christmas is coming or anything.
I would like to spend the entire month of December doing nothing but Christmas-related stuff. I wish my brain wasn’t occupied with pesky thoughts like how many bills we have to pay and how I’ve had a Holiday Savings Account at the Credit Union since before Ryan was born and have never once put any money in it.
I want the picture-perfect Christmas. I want cookies and candy canes and Christmas carols and to wear silly fuzzy sweaters with reindeer on them. I want to visit relatives with tins of fudge and drive around looking at Christmas decorations. (We actually did that the other night, I just remembered. We drove through a huge neighborhood and found exactly five houses with any kind of lights. Most houses here in Lansing? No decorations at all.)
I want December to be about something other than scrambling to pay bills and get a bazillion product reviews and giveaways posted. I want it to be about Christmas CHEER and whatever. Is that unrealistic? Have Christmas specials on TV and decorating articles in Better Homes & Gardens given me unrealistic expectations? I’d like to think not.
You know me and big pronouncements, I tend to say I’m going to do things and then not follow through. Although I did say I was going to lose weight and I am, so maybe I’m finally changing for the better. Anyway, I’m opening my Google Calendar and making a note for next December. Cookie baking and gift delivering and card sending and fuzzy sweater wearing, dammit, I am going to ENJOY CHRISTMAS next year.
As for this year – if you want me to send you a holiday card, I won’t promise it will get there before Christmas, or have a photo of my kids in it, but if you’d like a holiday greeting from me, please email me your address to table4five (at) gmail (dot) com. I promise your addresses will not be shared with anyone.
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Twitter: Half_past_crazy
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I know EXACTLY what you mean! Every year, it’s the same thing for me. I spend the biggest part of November thinking about how this year is going to be different, and we’re going to enjoy our Christmas for once… then before I know it, it’s December 12th, and I have yet to buy a SINGLE Christmas present! AAAAHHHHHH!!! Oh well, maybe next year. lol.
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Twitter: Table4Five
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Glad to know it’s not just me! I made a quick Christmas card at Walgreens.com so I can at least get something mailed out. Not sure when I’ll go shopping since it’s still snowing!
Twitter: you haudyn
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Okay so open this up and begin to read and cry because that is exactly what I have wanted for 25 yrs and know I sadly find my kids have grown up. The oldest lives in Japan on a Marine base….I miss him dearly! My 20 yr old leaves for basic in just a few short weeks, my 18 yr old moved out with friends and of course my seventeen yr old is still here but everyone is going in 50 different directions and I am still here all alone and struggling to get some time with them. So getting a head start on next year if you still have small children to make it extra special for you and them please do because it will all slip away form you if you do not. I am working on making special memories with the one I still have home for at least one last year. Merry Christmas to you all. Have a safe and memorable one with your family!
Do you still have my address?
Okay, the other stuff – don’t have a 9mo helper on my lap.
I don’t even try for the perfect holiday. I think I did once or twice.
Now I just aim for [goofy] fun. I let the kids decorate the tree (ornaments for now – when they’re older, they get to do lights). It’s usually lopsided, and rearranged a dozen times a day. We typically make cookies at some point, even if they’re regular chocolate chip with green and red sprinkles on top. Do the holiday cruise most years (it’s a local thing), cruise around neighborhoods hunting for lights to calm down squealy little ones before bedtime, and have a stash of those baby candy canes to throw into hot chocolate mugs here and there.
Want me to start harassing you by August about gearing up for Christmas?
I haven’t bought any presents, but I don’t need to because it’s the first Christmas that i spend away from home. Yes, i’m going on holiday just with a couple of friends, and I think i’ll buy from there some souvenirs (presents). So no more traveling from one relative to another, no more cooking…just relaxing.
This christmas I plan to give my mom a Kitchenaid Stand Mixer. I really think there is no better Stand mixer in the market today than KitchenAid Professional 600 Series 6-Quart Stand Mixer. Kitchenaid professional series mixers are just amazing, great for any job big or small.
I just saw this new one and cant decide which stand mixer to get . KitchenAid Professional 600 Series 6-Quart Stand Mixer OR KitchenAid Artisan 5-Quart Stand Mixers KSM150PSOB http://kitchenstandmixerreviews.net/kitchenaid-artisan-5-quart-stand-mixers/
Christmas is not about buying the perfect gifts or having the perfect decorations…in my opinion it shouldn’t be about buying at all. I gave up wanting the perfect Christmas some years ago, when I realized I can’t expect people to be ideal, I just want them there, close to me. I am talking about my friends, because my parents are always there for Christmas. So my idea of a perfect Christmas now is spending time with friends and family altogether, listening to carols, and if it’s snowing, playing in the snow.