Catching up

That's what life seems to be all about right now- catching up. Catching up on bills, catching up on time, catching up with my kid, catching up on my Christmas gifts. That last one may be completely hopeless, but I just keep plugging along blindly denying that I only have maybe a handful of days before I have to start shipping things out. Eeek!

And of course, instead of working on anything, I'm simply sitting here blogging. But I've neglected the blog for a while and wanted to update a few things that have been going on, just for the sake of helping me keep the days straight, if nothing else.

After getting a grumpy start to the holiday season, I'm finally starting to find some Christmas spirit in me somewhere. We put up our tree this weekend, and for the first time since we became a family, it truly did turn into a family event. Hubby has never taken part in the trimming of the tree hanging of stockings, but this year he attacked it with full gusto. So much so that all I had to do was sit and untangle ornament hooks while he and J took care of the rest.



The obligatory under the tree shot.

We bought a new tree this year after somehow losing the stand to the old one last year, which made the fiberoptics and the lights not work, and also left the entire tree in a state of tumbledom. Yes, that's a word in my world. :) I love this new one. It's tall and slim, which works well in our cramped space, and is full and lovely and prelit, which saves me a huge headache, and probably is part of the reason hubby decided to join us this year. Good tree.

J even slept under it that first night. Sigh.


Another thing that makes me smile about the holidays is the return of this ugly old guy.

Meet Evil Santa, so named because when the lights flash they cast creepy shadows on Santa's face and it looks like his eyebrows are wagging up and down. Evil Santa has adorned the top of my parents tree for my entire life, and he grew quite endearing in our late teen/early adult years. Last year, with the knowledge that it would be the last year that we all gathered around the same tree, I tracked down Evil Santa's for both myself and my sister, and now we all have our own. I even love the fact that mine has a few burned out bulbs. Makes him all the more authentic.

There's so much more I could be filling you in on, but right now J is begging me to go outside and play in the yard, and it's so gorgeous out there that I can't possibly resist.