Christmas Preparation

Have you looked at the calendar? It isn’t just Monday, it is the week of Christmas!

I don't normally do this to my poor cat, and his dignity has definitely taken a beating.

This past weekend found us:

• hiding under a snowdrift. Friday’s snowstorm, and then the addition of Saturday night’s snow, has been keeping us pretty buried. More snow is on the way tonight and tomorrow. I have a feeling that the snow from the beginning of this month was just a drop in a bucket for this year’s snowy season. I’m rather short (5′4″), but there are snowdrifts taller than me right now. By the way, Supercat participated in the annual “drop the kitty in a snowbank,” festivities again. Yes, his bags are packed and he hopes to find a new home in the near future, but that is probably more due to me turning him into an elf.

• trying to stay warm. Hey – it is one degree outside today! Time to break-out the sunscreen and flip-flops! (After a few days of below-zero temps, excluding the wind-chill which makes it seem so much colder, one degree sounds positively balmy.)

• cleaning-up snow. The Hubby is about to leave me for that new snow blower, since he is so in-love with it. To combat the flirting of the snow blower, Little Dude and I headed out to visit the Hubby after he cleared our driveway on Friday. Little Dude has determined he LOVES shoveling. (He loves vacuuming, too, but that is a story for another day.)

• doing a little more Christmas shopping. Little Dude happily accompanied me on Saturday morning, while I hit one of my local stores. We have a couple gift certificates to get, but otherwise, I think we are done. Yay!

• wrapping Christmas presents. I stayed up Saturday night, only to realize it was 2:30 am, and I should probably “wrap things up,” (pun intended) and get some sleep. Since Little Dude let us sleep-in the night before, my short night of sleep wasn’t as painful as it could have been.

• teaching Little Dude not to play with the presents under the tree. Overall, he has been good. Really good. But every so often… We are trying to avoid putting up the gate around the Christmas tree this year, and I think we will be able to do it, but we do have to watch him like a hawk.

• sorting Little Dude’s toys. My child is very blessed and is surrounded by a large variety of toys to play with. On top of that, he has Matchbox and Hot Wheels vehicles coming out of his ears. Between his grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and parents, Little Dude has had toys showered upon him since birth. While he napped on Saturday, the Hubby, Uncle R and I, sorted through his toys, and have donated some he has outgrown, some he rarely uses and some that are duplicates of other items. We have talked, and as Little Dude gets older, we will be donating toys before each Christmas – a process in which he will be actively involved. And if the number of gifts becomes too grandiose and out-of-control, we may be having him pick a few items from his gifts to donate after Christmas.

• planning our Christmas dinner. We celebrate with the Hubby’s family on Christmas Eve, head to late-night church services that night and then Christmas day is our day – the day for the Hubby, Little Dude, Supercat and I to just be together. My family used to celebrate on Christmas Eve, too, but with everyone scattered all over, it has become more difficult, so we try to get together the weekend before or after Christmas. This year it will be December 26th, barring any blizzards which may keep my sisters from making it to this area. The Hubby makes prime rib for my family every year, and this year we are making a dish to take out to his mom’s house, since we don’t want her doing all of the cooking (we want her to just work on getting better!). Also, we try to have a special meal for the three of us on Christmas day. How humorous is it that we’ve chosen to do “Christmas spaghetti,” for our meal? (Our reason – Little Dude loves spaghetti, so we know we all will enjoy it.)

• sorting my room/dresser. I’ve always been a messy organizer. My bedroom used to be the source of many arguments between my Mom and I, while I was growing up, and some things don’t change. I prefer to say “my priorities are just set differently,” as an old boss (and friend) put it. I organize in piles because I prefer to spend my time on other things, and if I put something in a drawer, I forget about it. That being said, my bedroom and dresser are a dumping ground. This weekend, I found the chair in my bedroom, my hope chest, and the mirror on the back of my dresser. It isn’t perfect, but it is better, and I feel less stressed when I look in my room.

• enjoying each other. This was the only weekend in December for which we didn’t have any major plans, and we made the most out of it. Even cleaning felt a bit less stressful because we were able to all be together. And my wrapping of the gifts late at night – I always have a Christmas movie or two playing in the background. It was great to just be together and home.

That is all that is happening here, with our Christmas preparations. How our your Christmas plans going?