Try as I might to deny it, Christmas is upon us.  It’s knocking on the door and rattling the windows.  It’s calling my home phone every hour and leaving voicemails on my already-crowded-and-never-listened-to inbox.  We were out and about all day on Sunday and if there’s one thing I noticed it is this: Christmas is Here.  It don’t care that temperatures will be up near 70 degrees today (Seriously, WTF, Nevada??).  It doesn’t care that I haven’t even begun to think about decorating (at least our exterior is mostly done already, since we never took down last years decorations) (don’t you want to be our neighbor??).  It doesn’t even care that we haven’t even had Thanksgiving yet.  The fact of the matter is that Christmas is rapidly approaching and if you aren’t shopping your guts out by now then you totally FAIL.  

So in the spirit of Yuletide and all that rot, I’m going to share with you my Holiday To-Do List.  Because don’t we all have one of these?  At the very least, this little exercise might help organize myself so that I can at least hope to get some of these things done.  

• Compile and burn Christmas CDs for Holiday Gift Bag.  I THINK I know what songs I want to put on there.  But I should probably stop putting this off and just get it done.  This is an EASY task. 
• Finish making the ornaments that Harry burned out on making after he made 1/2 of one.  SIGH.  
• Paint and decorate the remaining picture frames (we have one done.  Sort of. 
• Make holiday candy and treats for Gift Bags.  This could be dangerous for my waistline.  Especially the fudge part.  So I think I’ll make Kile do it.
• Purchase Whole Foods reuseable grocery bags for the Gift Bag.  It’s sort of an important component, actually. *cough*
• Dig Christmas tree out of the garage and assemble.  Then decorate it.  Then pray to Baby Jesus that Liam doesn’t entirely dismantle it.  
• Do the Santa gift thing.  We (sorta) know what we’re going to get.  But we probably won’t be making any purchases until after Thanksgiving.
• Find presents for Kile.  GULP.  Since I’m pretty much a hermit and never leave the house alone with the kids, this could be… interesting.  Hellooooo online shopping!!
• Make more fudge.  For myself.  (Who am I kidding??)
• Do the post office thing.  *shudder*  Hmm.  On second thought, delegate that task to Kile.  
• Oh crap!  Christmas cards!  I almost forgot.  Yeah, since I actually have some to give out this year, I should probably do those too.  

I know this means I’m Officially Lame, but I’m watching Disney’s “Meet the Robinsons” with Liam and I’m finding myself laughing.  A lot.  This is a cute, funny movie!  Very clever.  Hey, if it’s not brain-melting drivel like “Oswald” (my old nemesis), and it makes my kids happy, then I pretty much want to marry it and have it’s babies. 

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Evie slept in her crib on Saturday night.  As in, I laid her down in there around 8pm and she didn’t wake up until almost 5am.  (!!)  And even then, it wasn’t as if she woke up squalling and freaking out.  It was more of a “fuss”.  But I missed her so badly by that point and had slept so fitfully without her right there next to me, that I hopped up and ran to grab her. Heh. 

We tried it again last night, but shortly after we went to bed I heard her fuss.  I had JUST drowsed off so I was feeling loopy and I went to get her.  I didn’t realize until I got into her room and touched her belly that she had fallen back asleep.  (*cringe*)  Of course, touching her woke her up and she proceeded to freak the frack out so back to bed with us she went.  Ah well.  Live and learn. 

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We really enjoy “True Blood” and “Entourage” on HBO on Sunday nights.  We missed BOTH last week when we were in Elko, which is a big ol’ bummer.  But last night was awesome.  And I’m so sad that both are ending their season after, like, NEXT WEEK.  What the heck am I going to watch THEN?  BOO!  What the freak is it with these tiny, itty, bitty television seasons??  And how many months until “Lost” comes back, anyhow?? 

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Mondays kinda suck, don’t they?  I need more caffeine.

I’m starting to notice, this fine Monday morning, that perhaps this weekend wasn’t only dysfunctional for me and mine but for the world at large.  The biggest news from the Internetz this morning seems to be one of two things: 

1. Motrin and their super-lame attempt at relating to moms.  I didn’t see the ad so I can’t comment specifically on it except to say that it appeared that they pissed a WHOOOOOOLE lot of mamas off.  Yikes. 
2. Target the $60 Britax Marathon carseat “sale” from yesterday.  Will they honor all the sales?  Or will they tell everyone to suckit?  OY.  

As for our family, I think we just had an off day yesterday.  Which isn’t to say that we didn’t all have a good time and enjoy each other.  But there were some rough patches mostly revolving around money and the lack thereof and Harry’s emotional issues and the way I can’t seem to leave him be.  Nothing entirely major, but definitely blemishes in an otherwise nice day.  Heck, it was SO nice that we actually made it to church!  We hadn’t really realized it had been so long since we’d been but we figured yesterday that the last time we went was probably in August.  I think it was the weekend before I got my iPhone.  Wowzers.  

I even got some hair color (which is where the money argument stemmed out of because I dared to purchase it out of the wrong account and then was made to feel like a second-class citizen for doing so (this is why I have a hard time spending money on myself anymore) (and then he dared to suggest that the diapers I bought the kids this month were for me and I tossed back a sarcastic, “Oh, I forgot.  I totally wear those diapers when you’re not around.”).  Still, the color came out great and I like it very much.  Not enough for me to actually start liking my hair, but it helps me look in a mirror and not want to shave the whole thing off.  

I’ve got a lot of concerns and issues and problems to stew over this week.  I imagine it’s not going to be a very easy couple of days.  Again, nothing terribly major but enough to kind of overwhelm me and make me want to fold in on myself.  But on the other hand, I think we’re all rather used to me feeling that way, aren’t we?  Plus, I’m thinking about taking bets on whether or not I’ll ever get my thyroid medication.  I’ll warn you though, the odds aren’t looking good.