Christmas Prep

It's days like today that make me realize why I wait to do my Christmas prep and get it done in a few days.  It also makes me realize why people who start on Thanksgiving weekend are stressed and grouchy for a month.

I spent the first half of the day here in the house, cleaning and getting ready for tree decorating.  Note that we still haven't actually decorated the tree, but at least now we can find it.

The second half of the day I spent shopping.  Or at least trying to shop.  My kids are impossible.  The Teen is on a kick, so he was easy.  His gifts were all related to the same theme, and I bought them all Monday, along with gifts for my girlfriends.  The other two are a different story.  Most of the cool gifts I saw would have been great if  1) they were crafty girls or  2) they were littler kids.  They're old enough not to want stuff from Toys R Us.  They're young enough not to want bunches of clothes.  They don't need any electronics or games.  They have plenty of books and a wonderful library system if there's something they don't have.  They have a decade's worth of Legos, KNex, Imaginext, etc. neatly put away in bins, ready to be used when they feel like it.  They have a well-stocked kitchen (although Little did request his own saute pan, which he's getting.  But he helped pick it out so it won't be a surprise.)  They have all the educational stuff, art stuff, music stuff, pottery wheel stuff, sock creature stuff, camping stuff... and they rarely use it.

Plus, I just spent my entire Fall purging the house of extraneous crap.  I'm not really in the mood to bring in a lot of new crap they don't need.

I'm kind of at a loss.  Someone suggested we get them candy.  I kind of hate the idea, but I don't know what else to do.  We're at the point where we're just buying crap so they'll have something to open.  Which is so not what I'm about.

Sigh...

Anyway, I arrived at sparring feeling totally fried from wandering around stores trying to think of things to buy.  It was good to go out for pizza and laugh with our friends for a while.  But I'm still ready for a hot bath and bed and it's not even midnight. 

And I have to do it again tomorrow.  :-(

This is the kind of thing I can do as long as it's only for a day or two.  If I had to have it on my radar screen for more than a week, it would wreck me.  I'm just not built that way.

Ho ho... yeah, goodnight.