Only 9 Days Left!

I couldn't believe it when Thanksgiving came and went, and I only had two Christmas gifts purchased. I didn't have a plan either. I was at a loss as to what to get for everyone and I was starting to panic! Fortunately, I got the Christmas card ordered before Thanksgiving! Last year we didn't send one out, so I had to get one out this year. By the time I paid for all the postage, I was wishing I had skipped this year as well! I started looking for blocks of time where I could get out without the kids. The weekends were full, Adam was busy, and I was starting to brainstorm other options. My Mom was in a bit of a panic as well, as she often relies on me to help her figure out gifts. Somehow we found a block of time to run to Longview for a quick trip. But, before we left, I had to take the kids over to the local church to meet Santa. Synnove had been begging to go! It ended up being a bust because neither of the kids wanted to get within 6 feet of Santa...

In about a weeks time, I finished my Christmas shopping. Online shopping is great!! I could finally breathe a bit...but the house still wasn't decorated. Synnove was soooo excited to decorate, and asked me several times a day..."when are we going to get the decorations out!?", and my response was always.."not until we get our tree." Getting the tree was proving to be difficult. We were busy...constantly busy. And when we weren't busy, it was either dark or raining. We were looking forward to cutting our own tree out at the dairy, but I was beginning to wonder if we were going to have to pay an arm and a leg to the boy scouts down the road for one of theirs. BUT, the weather cleared one day after Synnove got out of school, and we raced to Brownsmead just in time to be home by dusk.

The kids took a bath before dinner (they were filthy and wet) and I made homemade pizza. When dinner was over, I turned on the Christmas music and the decorating began. The kids had such a great time. I think this is the first year that I felt the kids could handle decorating the tree on their own (less the lights and garland)...and they did. Adam helped, while I decorated elsewhere. It really was a fun, no-stress, Christmassy time!

Soren loved all the ornaments...and was constantly coming up to me saying "look at this one!"

Synnove was my grown-up helper girl...she's got this whole Christmas tree thing down pat.

That night I was exhausted, but determined to wrap a few gifts. I ended up wrapping every single one! I still had a few that hadn't come in the mail yet, but, for the most part, I was done! I went to bed well after midnight and was dragging the next day. The kids were surprised to see all the gifts under the tree the next morning and started checking the tags for their names. Synnove was pretty disappointed that there was only one gift with her name on it...ha ha.

We still haven't put any lights outside, and I haven't done any baking...but it feels good to be almost ready for Christmas!