Last night I watched the last few minutes of a news show (
60 minutes maybe? whatever was on while I was waiting for
Survivor to start) and some college football coach was on whose mantra is "I keep thinking that day to day, something good is just about to happen." I thought I was going to blog today about that train of thought and what a great way to live your that is. Idealism at it's finest.
But after a night of literally tossing and turning, not falling asleep until almost 3am, instead I'm going to make a confession.
I'm a holiday slacker.
Oh sure, I've made some ornaments with my grandson, and fabric Christmas cards. My gift buying is done (well, except for my daughter who just cannot make up her mind about what she wants for Christmas. She will get the modern day version of coal in her stocking -- a gift card -- if she doesn't hurry up and give me some ideas).
But....
The Christmas tree stands in my family room, lit up soooo pretty. Lights make a tree, don't you think? I hope so, because my tree has NO decorations on it. Oh, wait, my grandson hung ONE of our ornaments on it.
There is no wreath on my door. I have not journeyed down the 14 steps to my basement to fish it out of it's box.
There are lit candles in all the front windows -- my husband put them there.
There are no cookies baked.
I've yet to plan my Christmas Eve dinner menu or our Christmas buffet menu, to say nothing about doing the actual grocery shopping or preparation work.
There are no stockings hung, no presents wrapped (or mailed), no lovely initialed gift tags made. There is no homemade tree skirt, no Christmas wreath quilt hanging over the fireplace, and no lovely Christmas quilt on the back of the family room couch, no mantel decorated. Oh, and I didn't make the embroidered Christmas sofa pillows I was sure I was going to.
There are no garlands, no poinsettias, no snowflakes. There is a package of candy canes on the kitchen table. Does that count?
I have a 30 year collection of more than 500 Christmas candles. The closest they have come to making an appearance this year is the cardboard box of 10 or 15 of them that my husband accidentally brought up from the basement, thinking they were something else and leaving them on the highchair in the kitchen because he thought I might want to unpack them and put them up.
I haven't.
I have no idea what this is all about. I used to have my shopping done in October. I stayed up nights when my kids were little, baking cookies and making homemade decorations. One year I gave all my neighbors salt dough replicas of their homes, painted in itty bitty detail! This year -- nada.
I think I need to change the name of my blog... perhaps "Lazy Housewife" or "How to Disguise Yourself as a Housewife" or "Scroogey-Housewife". I like "Desperate Housewife" but that one's already taken.
This is all a bit tongue-in-cheek because the one thing I do have (as of this morning) are LISTS of all the things I need to get done between now and Christmas. I'll get it done, not to worry. Gifts get wrapped today and off to the post office tomorrow. Menu plans will be done tonight. Grocery shopping on Thursday. Tree decorated on Wednesday. Shopping on Tuesday. As of Thursday my husband will be on vacation until after Christmas, so he can hang the wreath and the garlands.
God bless lists.
So maybe what's bothering me is the coach's mantra just doesn't fit around the holidays. Something good MAY happen today, indeed... but only if I get up off my butt and get it done!
This balancing act may not be so Christmas-y -- but it's funny! Look what I found when I walked around the corner from the kitchen to the family room!
From my house to yours -- from my heart to yours -- Merry, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to each and every one of you. Thank you for sharing this little corner of blog land with me. You touch my heart.
Brayden's almost 3 years old (March 1st) and conversations with him just amaze me. Here are a few examples of what's been going on around here:
Brayden: Where's Umpa?
Me: He's still in bed. I think he's being a lazy boy.
B: You're probably right. (I swear he said that! LOL)
B: I was lazy too.
Me: Oh, when were you lazy?
B: Last night. Last night I was very lazy.
Me: What did you do?
B: Nothing (pronounced Nuzzing). That's because I was lazy.
LOL
Brayden loves my husband's NASCAR video game. He sits in his Umpa's lap and they play together. He doesn't really know what all the buttons on the controller do, but he likes to watch what happens on the screen when he's pushing buttons.
Jeff had a hole in the knee of his jeans yesterday. Brayden kept sliding his hand into that hole, and Jeff would laugh and tell him to stop. (No 3 yr old is going to stop if he can get you to laugh!) Then Brayden discovered he could reach over while Umpa played the NASCAR game and push a certain button to make the game rewind, which of course, made Jeff laugh and tell Brayden to stop. You could see this little mind put two and two together. So he would put his hand in the knee-hole, make Umpa laugh, and before the laughter had died down, reach over and push the rewind button. Knee, rewind, knee, rewind - over and over again. Jeff started seriously telling him to stop and he kept it up - knee, rewind, knee, rewind...
I came into the room and said, "Brayden, what are you doing?"
B: I'm aggravating Umpa.
LOL! At least he's honest :)
. It is THE book for focusing on a goal and getting things done. How do you eat a frog? One bite at a time! How did I get a handle on how far behind I was on getting ready for Christmas? One mini-goal at a time. I can't recommend it enough. Although it was written for getting business-related things done, I swear you can apply it to every area of your life, including getting things done around the house.
My grandson arrived this morning at 7:30am, and saw the Christmas tree. He said, "Umma, I LIKE it!" He didn't say, "Hey lazy, there's no wreath on the door and I'm not smelling those 50 dozen cookies you usually bake!" That was the lesson I needed to learn. The thought of decorating my house to the hilt was stressing me out, but when I allowed myself to just enjoy the spirit of the season and decorate ENOUGH, I was fine. And look at that... it's six days until Christmas and now I can just enjoy my time with my family and attend some community events. No more stressing.
I even had time to make these little monkey slippers and a wallet (to hold his McDonald's gift card) for my grandson yesterday:
So if you're not ready for the holiday, grab a cup of coffee, a piece of paper and a pen. Make a list. Then look at the list and cross off those things you really don't have to do. Get the things done you MUST do (buy gifts, mail gifts, wrap presents) and let the rest go for now. Divide your list by the days left until the holiday -- and focus on your goal (list) each day until everything gets done. You may find you end up with extra time to actually enjoy the holiday!
