Holidays are Coming - Happy or Not!

Well, this week has been terribly busy for me. After the big birthday festivities last weekend, we hosted Kara's playgroup on Tuesday morning, followed by me having to work in John's class in the afternoon. Then yesterday, Matt stayed home with the kids and worked in the class so I could go out and finish the Christmas shopping. It amazed me at how much I was able to accomplish in a few short hours without the short people tagging along! I went to two different malls, a toy store, a shipping store, the Container Store, and had lunch in three and a half hours. I was totally wiped out at the end of it all, but it was done, so I felt like I'd actually gotten it accomplished. And it's still a week until Christmas! So this morning, with both kids up before dawn (which is just not the norm around here, and thus leads to super-tired and cranky kids), I decided to take things easy today. John was thrilled to help me put labels and stamps on the Christmas cards while Kara worked on her own sticker page. Afterwards we bundled up and walked up to the mailbox to send off our cards. Kara got to drop the cards in the box, much to John's dismay. Then we walked around the neighborhood a bit, delivered a few more cards ourselves and then headed home to warm up. It was surprisingly cold out this morning! By this point, I was exhausted, but the kids had finally woken up and were playing well together and running around while I was making lunch before getting John off to school. I was ready to drop him off about an hour early today, but held on until the normal drop-off time. ;-) Then I finally had a few moments to myself once I had Kara in bed for her nap. I briefly thought about spending the time wrapping presents or doing something productive, but quickly decided watching the last episode of Desperate Housewives, which I had missed, would be much more relaxing! After having some time to chill out, I headed for the laundry room and then the kitchen to make dinner. So now I'm about to head out to pick up John from school and figure out what on earth we're going to do to get through the afternoon. I'm seeing some art projects happening today!

Now that I've gotten so much accomplished, I'm starting to be able to relax and remember what the holidays are really all about. I'm finally looking forward to spending time with all our family and watching the magic of Christmas unfold. I wish everyone the luxury of time to stop and enjoy the holidays.