Friday, December 18, 2015

Almost There

One week until Christmas and we are making our final push. It has been another hectic week but we have almost made it to the sweet spot. Soon everything on our "To Do" lists will be done. School will be out, class parties will be done, Secret Santas presents and teachers' gifts will have been handed out, Christmas plays and talent shows will have been viewed, the mailman and newspaper man and trash collector will have received their holiday gifts, presents will all be wrapped and in their hiding places, and special Christmas cookies and treats will have been baked and decorated and eaten.

Soon there will be nothing left to do but sit back and enjoy a few peaceful days leading up to Christmas.

But not this week.

This week we are still in the midst of madness.

The week we had four basketball games (and cheering) to play in and to watch, two Boy Scout meetings for Ben, ALL of the Christmas shopping to do (and on this one when I saw "we" I mean "me"), and one school Christmas concert to attend.

The kids Christmas concert was on Wednesday night. They each got spiffed up in festive clothes and sang their little hearts out in front of a packed church.
I tell ya, there is something about a schoolful of children singing about God that makes me bawl my brains out. It was a lovely and touching and special concert.

This time last year Grace was at a different school so she had to sit in the pews and watch her brothers and her friends sing in the concert. It was hard on her. I can't tell you how excited she was to be in the concert this year.
All of the kids did a great job, from the singing, to the bells and chimes, to sitting quietly in the pews while they waited their turns to sing, to Joey and his friend on the sound equipment. The concert was definitely a success and put me in an even more festive mood than I already was.

It has been a busy but productive week. Many of you were freaking out on me when I mentioned in my last post that I hadn't even BEGUN to Christmas shop yet and it was pretty crazy. I didn't even have ONE present. But! I managed to get all the shopping done in a matter of days. And I am very excited about the gifts I purchased. There are not a ton of gifts but they are good ones. The kids are going to be shocked. This is going to be fun.

And not only did I get the Christmas shopping done but I have even WRAPPED them all. Yesterday I spent all day long wrapping gifts. I wrapped the kids' gifts, Todd's gifts, the Secret Santa gifts for the kids' parties, and the teachers' gifts. And, oh yeah, 44 small gifts that I always bring for the favorite dice game played each year at both of the grandmas' houses.  I am ON THE BALL, PEOPLE!!!

I still have to purchase a few snacks for each of the kids' Christmas parties they will be having on Monday at school but that is easy enough. Other than that, I am done. DONE!  

Well, maybe not done. All that will be left is making cookies and treats. And I still have to buy the ingredients. But that is fun! And I am waiting until next week to do that because the kids will be out of school on Tuesday and I know they are looking forward to helping me with the baking. That's the good stuff! 

Yes, the hectic holiday rush is winding down. Soon the sweet spot will be here.   

 Wishing you a lovely sweet spot amid the holiday hustle!

3 comments:

Bijoux said...

I have to say that although I do miss the kids' excitement, I do not miss the hustle of it all! Honestly, I can't believe how relaxed I am this year! And I'm hosting three family holiday gatherings and then my son's gf is coming to stay with us for two weeks. And I'm sitting around on the Internet! LOL!

Merry Christmas, Kat. XO

betty said...

Such great pictures of the kids :) You did good with all you had to get done and now you are definitely going to enjoy the home stretch and the excitement of Christmas Day. I read on something in Facebook that a family had the tradition of wrapping each child's gift in the same wrapping paper for that child but no tags were put on the gifts. The kids had no idea what was under the tree that actually belonged to them until Christmas morn when at the bottom of their stocking was a clipping of their wrapping paper for them to know which gifts they could open. I thought that was a pretty cool thing to do :)

Enjoy the week leading up to Christmas and have the most merriest of Christmases!

betty

Kat said...

Bijoux- I get it. I remember when I was in high school my mom didn't even want to put the Christmas tree up anymore. I was so mad. I couldn't understand it. Now I get it. ;) But honestly, I think I will miss all of this craziness someday.

Betty- That is a great idea with the wrapping paper. Luckily, our kids all stay in their beds until we come and get them in the morning. Luckily for them we don't make them wait too long. ;)

Words To Live By

Be grateful for each new day.
A new day that you have never lived before.
Twenty-four new, fresh, unexplored hours to use usefully and profitably.
We can squander, neglect, or use them.
Life will be richer or poorer by the way we use today.
Finish every day and be done with it.
You have done what you could;
some blunders and absurdities crept in;
forget them as soon as you can.
Tomorrow is a new day.
You shall begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be
encumbered with your old nonsense.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson