…before Christmas and all through the house, every creature was stirring, inclduing dog, cats, and spouse!

So. I finally got Christmas lists last Wednesday night. ‘Zon Prime is my friend. Even with the strike. It looked like we’d be one gift short but it arrived so yay! Are they wrapped yet? Nope. Unless I got a second wind and did some last night (as I’m typing this on Sunday evening I’ve no clue), then the boxes are still staring at me accusingly for being a slacker. We also found out that Christmas was going to be at our house this year. 🤦🏼‍♀️

Here’s the deal. For years, our Christmas tree was a 3-dimensional barb-wire cactus with chili pepper lights. It replaced the huge tree with all the ornaments that our rottweiler ate one year. Easy to move and store. Then I missed all the ornaments we’d collected for years. True story. We had so many that for several years, we had miniature trees in every bed room, then living room, and family room. They had themes. The master tree was Peanuts (LG has a wonderful collection of Peanuts-themed ornaments.) Only’s held all the ornaments we’d given her each year and ones from our travels. The living room had the firefighter tree. The guest room had all the ornaments from my childhood. The family room had the cactus tree with the presents. Then Only grew up and we (okay, ME!) decided I wanted a real Christmas tree. Okay, it was fake but it looked real and was tall and had room for ornaments. Being lazy and seeing as it was back in an unused corner of the family room and that neither cats nor dogs disturbed it, we just left it up year round. Christmas morning presents and cinnamon rolls was always here. Then Stormy came along and Santa came to the Kids’ house so we loaded up and headed their way on Christmas morning bearing gifts and cinnamon rolls. Due to some stuff happening, we had to reconfigure the family room furniture so the tree came down. And since Christmas wasn’t “celebrated” here, it didn’t go back up. Then things changed again. Christmas morning is at our house again. Santa will still go to the Kids’ first but they’ll bring presents down here to open and have cinnamon rolls. I found this out last week too. 🤦🏼‍♀️

FYI, I’m doing a whole lot of 🤦🏼‍♀️ lately.

Well, we now have Christmas decorations on the fireplace mantel and there is a tree to put presents under. Sort of. There’s still no room for the full size tree so I dug out one of the mini trees–it’s about 4′ tall and skinny) and it took me two hours to get the branches uncrunched, find a working string of tree lights, and string them. There’s a Santa topper. It remains to be seen if there will be ornaments. I haven’t found those boxes in the garage yet.

I mentioned the cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning. In addition, we’re doing roasted turkey sandwiches for Christmas “dinner” along with pecan and pumpkin pies. My crew loves “fresh” turkey sandwiches but traditional Christmas fare like stuffing, cranberry salad, etc? Yeah, not so much. So, sandwiches. On festive paper plates that go in the trash. And a turkey breast in a roasting pan than goes in the trash. Easy peasy, right?

So, on this Eve of Christmas Eve, I’m scurrying around like a hyper mouse. I have a few last minute things to buy but I can hit small store, not big box. Yay. I have roll dough to make. I have to remember to take the turkey OUT of the freezer so it will thaw. I have presents to wrap, ornaments to find, and dang it, I WANT to write a Christmas story for the blog. 🤦🏼‍♀️

See what I mean by all the 🤦🏼‍♀️. Anyway, it’ll all work out. It always does. What about y’all? If you tell me that you’re all done and you’re sitting around with your feet up drinking egg nog and reading books or watching Christmas movies, I’m liable to sic the Wolves on you. Just sayin’… Otherwise, and in all seriousness, I hope you are enjoying this wonderful and magical time of year.