Weekend Recap: Pre-Christmas Christmas Edition

The holidays are fast approaching!  How do I know?  Because we are B-U-S-Y: BUSY!

Thankfully, Mark usually takes some time off around the holidays to burn through vacation.  Unfortunately, he usually plans for the week leading up to Christmas and the last two years has found us with family Christmas celebrations before that point.  Early last week Mark decided to take an extra day off and scheduled Friday off in addition to this whole week.  THANK.GOODNESS. he did that! 

Friday arrived with hardly any Christmas preparations on my part (we didn't even get our tree up until Thursday night!), which was totally fine since our first Christmas celebration wasn't until the NEXT DAY!  Oy. 

I left the house around Noon to hit the stores hard and finally made it back home around 4.30pm or so.  My 4+ hour shopping spree involved: Target (where I didn't get everything I needed), Trader Joe's (which was PACKED, I tell you!  Doesn't anyone work during the day anymore?!  Sheesh.), Bed Bath & Beyond, JoAnn Fabrics, Wal-mart (which sadly oddly was the least crowded store, this at a place which is usually a nightmare), the gas station, and then I was planning to hit another Target, but then realized it was 4.30pm on a Friday and getting on the freeway would be a suicide mission.  I was exhausted anyway so I opted to head home instead. 

Mark picked us up a pizza for dinner because, did I mention already?, I was e.x.h.a.u.s.t.e.d. from the shopping nightmare I was just forced to endure!  I don't really enjoy shopping in-person.  Once we got Jack down to bed I addressed Christmas cards and then it was bedtime. 

Saturday, I spent the day working on Christmas gift projects.  Of course that took longer than expected (it ALWAYS does) and Mark took care of wrapping gifts while I got ready to go.  We had fun at our Christmas celebration at Mother-in-law's house and then as we were leaving I realized that I never did see the gift that I had spent all afternoon working on... "Mark, you DID put the towels in the gift bags, right?" ... "RIGHT?!"... "Uh... no."  Yep, totally left them sitting in our kitchen.  Did I mention we already had to leave 1/3 of the gifts out as the UPS man Santa was a little late with his delivery.  Maybe his sled broke down?  Christmas gift FAIL. 

Do other adults have it more together than us?  Certainly they must or everyone would just give up on exchanging gifts at Christmas for fear of losing their mind in the process!  So, some people will be getting 3 nights of gifts from us!  Christmaukkah?  Best of both worlds! 

Saturday night I meal planned, chose recipes for the holiday baking I was planning, then I stuffed the diapers that I had managed to wash earlier in the day and then it was bedtime, again.

Sunday:  Wrote out my grocery list.  Went grocery shopping.  Came home and baked a pie and cookies and got ready to leave again (all at the same time), put myself and still-warm baked goods in the car to head up to Brother-in-law's house for Family Christmas Celebration 2.0.  We were only 25 minutes late, which is pretty good for us me.  Christmas was celebrated, more gifts exchanged, 2 of 3 parts of Sister-in-law's gift was given, and then we headed home.  I put in a load of laundry and straightened up the family room while Mark cleaned the kitchen.  We enjoyed pie and then it was time for bed again. 

Monday:  I was determined to have a more relaxing day!  I had back-to-back conference calls scheduled at 10 and 10.30am, but was hoping to be "done" for the day by shortly after 11am.  I called in for my 10am call only to end up having to reschedule for later in the afternoon.  Fail.  I completed my 10.30 call without any problems.  I then went to sort through the mail and was greeted with an extra special Christmas miracle: a bill from my primary care provider from 3 years ago.  Whiskey.  Tango.  Foxtrot.  I put in a call to them and am still trying not to lose my mind while waiting for their office manager to call me back.  AWESOME.  Can't wait to deal with that! 

Fed Jack lunch, ate something for the first time today myself, then we reworked our budget for the coming new year, paid off our last credit card (YAY!), put Jack down for his nap, and it was time for my rescheduled conference call.  Completed the call, Mark went for a haircut while I baked off some more cookies and did another load of laundry.  Shortly thereafter Jack woke up from his nap, I made dinner, we ate, I mixed up another batch of dough and set it aside to chill, Mark cleaned up again.  I have another load of diapers ready to stuff as well as those two loads of laundry that I washed waiting to be folded.  And I still need to bake off those cookies! 

Tomorrow we have a cookie exchange playdate to attend (YUM!), Mark's going to lunch with friends, and then I have a doctors appointment scheduled.  While I'm out I'm planning to go to (hopefully!) 1 last store (another Target) to finish up my Christmas shopping, I have more cookies to make and bake and then a holiday gathering at my parents' house. 

Wednesday, I have hearings at 10.30 and 12.30am, Mark has an appointment, and then we are DONE!  D-U-N: DONE!  At least for a few days and hopefully by the time all the celebrations and craziness picks up again we will have at least caught our breath!