It's that time of the year....

One quick check on a countdown site and I see that it is just 79 days, 4 hours, and 50 minutes until CHRISTMAS!!! Where, oh where did the days go? Doesn't it seem like just yesterday we were packing up the last of the Christmas decorations?? Oh....maybe it was just yesterday and we said we weren't going to talk about that! Anyway, it's that time of the year AGAIN! Every year I say I am going to be on the ball. I am going to get my shopping done early, have the most fantastic surprise gifts for everyone, wrap presents as they enter the house, make some homemade gifts that will be cherished by all who receive them, deep clean the house early AND keep it that way, get a family Christmas picture done in the fall, write an amusing must read every word Christmas letter, decorate by Thanksgiving, send all my cards out by December 1st, and leave the ENTIRE month of December just to bake cookies and make fun holiday crafts! Yeah....and then I wake up and it's December 20th and nothing is wrapped, what cookies I made are all eaten, cards still haven't gone out, the house needs some serious picking up, and....you get the picture.

Why do we do it to ourselves? Maybe it's only me! Anyway...this year I know I am not going to get it all done, it isn't going to be perfect, I will be up on Christmas Eve wrapping those last gifts, and it is ok. I am ok with that! No one has ever complained, so I need to just cut myself some slack.

I think we all have good family memories of Christmas....well, except for a few years ago when I spent Christmas in bed with the stomach virus. Other than that year, and the year kid #1 had chicken pox for Christmas, and the year grandpa slept on our couch suffering from influenza, and the year grandpa fell during the annual Christmas football game and broke his collar bone and the year......oh nevermind! The point is, whatever gets done or is left undone and whether everyone is healthy or sick, and whether or not the bows make it on the packages; Christmas is a special time around here and we just love being together.

Tomorrow I officially begin Christmas shopping. I only have ideas for the younger kids and that's where I will start. I still hope to wrap them as they come in.....

By the way, Christmas is now 79 days, 4 hours and 13 minutes away!!