I'm exhausted,,,, and it's not here yet....

See here's the thing.. I love Christmas, or should I say I loved it. Growing up we didn't put the tree or the decorations up until Christmas Eve and left them there until January 6th. This did two things for a little girl excited about all the magic and the presents and the joy of the season.... firstly it made one mad that all one's friends parents put their trees up early, we were the only nuts in the town, it seemed, who waited until Christmas Eve...what a crock!!! On the other hand it was completely magical, the tree would be brought in and fill the house with the lovely scent of fresh pine, we'd drag out the decorations and you know how that goes....reminiscing about your favorite baubles (as we call them in the good olde UK) making sure the tinsel was even all around the tree and wondering if it was even gonna make it; we'd always have to cut some of the tree off to fit it in the house and then we'd put it in a bucket and hope it wouldn't fall over. We didn't have tree stands back then... in the dark ages. Let me also share the rest of the decorations with you, in 1970's Britain there was a lot of shiny weird decorations that looked like they belonged in a Chinese restaurant, we'd hang them from the ceiling and around the edges of the walls, some people would drape tinsel over their pictures hanging on the walls. We had a tradition of Blue Tacking (google it) all the Christmas cards that we received in the hallway of our house. They literally filled the walls, everywhere you looked cards of all shapes and sizes!!! Freakin ridiculous, looking back on it. Then there was the hoop... yes a hoop... my Mum was really pretty creative when I look back on it. She had this crazy idea to cover a hula hoop with red shiny tinsel, then suspend it under the chandelier in the living room with fishing line, then she dangled something else from it, bells or something festive like that. It looked like it was hanging in mid air... then the piece de resistance was the streamers going from the ring to the corners of the room. Magnifique!!!!! We'd then go to bed and voila...wake up the next morning to a beautifully decorated house and Santa had delivered the goods!!!

Anyhoodles... went way off track with all that didn't I???  What I was trying to point out is that although it was purgatory waiting for the tree and decs to go up, it meant that all the magic happened in a couple of days and there was no waiting around with a winter wonderland happening around you and no goods being delivered. That's probably what made me into the instant gratification kinda chick I am today.

Jump to present day America, here I am in the hub of Commercial Central... Christmas starts pretty much right after July 4th.... and it goes on and on and on and on and on... you get the picture.  Our tree went up the last weekend of November, my sister pointed out that was pretty ridiculous... she was right. Now it looks like it's been dragged around the back yard several times and attacked by a stray moose. So on THE DAY... you know the DAY that is Christmas, it will be a bedraggled pile of plastic and paper and I"ll be ready to take the damn thing down and get it out of my life for another year. There have been parades, Victorian Christmas, shopping nights, Christmas parties, Church Choir performances and Goodness knows what else. Ash has been to school twice in pajamas to watch Christmas movies and drink hot chocolate... Syd has performed the Reindeer Rap and been to see the Highschoolers perform a Christmas play..... I'm DONE!!! ya hear me freakin' DONE!!! NO MORE!!!!! It goes on and on until when the big day gets here you're totally freakin' over it already. Why can't it all just wait... wait until the week before Christmas, that way one won't get so nauseated with all the Good Will toward men and happy freakin' Jingle Bells.

I took the day off today, it was to stay home with my sick child who's really had a rough week, but it served a purpose to me too. While I took care of her, I took care of me too. I rested with her and realized I'm totally exhausted dammit... not just tired... not just a little out of steam... absolutely, effin' unbelievably exhausted!!!!

So I stayed home and rested, I made good on the opportunity to recharge my batteries... and I made a plan. See when the Americans are planning all the festivities, they over schedule just the first three weeks of December... and then it stops. So here's where I will start.... I'm baking tonight for our visitors, I'll be taking the kids to a light show over the weekend, just us, looking at the lights, enjoying being together. Then I will do some last minute shopping and wrap the gifts in the knowledge that no one has to be anywhere other than home and enjoying our time together. This is where I slow down and focus on the real meaning of Christmas, I will try and enjoy Hubby and the girls, we'll spend quality time together and we'll make our home warm and welcoming to the rest of the family. Yep that's what we're gonna do.

Since starting this post I paused to bake a bunch o' baked goods... lovely pumpkin bread, banana bread and sausage rolls. Tomorrow I'll throw together some sausage cheese balls, mince pies (staple of a British Christmas) and I'll try my hand at some cheese straws.....if you have a recipe for them please send it to me post haste!!! I'm determined to make it all about the hospitality and less about the dollars spent, traditions for my girls that hopefully they'll remember and take forth to the next generation. Who knew that baking at home with some smooth jazz would relax me so????  The wine helped too!! hee hee!!!

Look at the lovely Rose Pumpkin Bread.... who knew???

p.s. Ash just walked in and said she's gonna be nice now 'cos she wants presents!!! LMAO!!!