Grumble All the Way - Hey!

I am actually doing pretty well on my Christmas to-do list this year. Not because I've done anything that amazing...but because I dialed my expectations waaaay down. Neighbor gifts? I won't even tell you what I originally planned to do - the totally-not-going-to-happen-ness of my original plan is ridiculous! So Plan B: dollar store treat bags filled with candy. Candy that I did not make. They are even delivered...well except for the HALF of our list that wasn't home last night. We didn't leave them on the doorsteps because I failed to put our name anywhere on them and by golly if I'm going to pass out candy produced by the good folks at M&M Mars then I want credit for it.


Of course, I probably should have worried about mailing Christmas cards before I worried about delivering treats to people 2 houses away. Last Saturday I managed to buy Christmas cards and printable labels because won't just typing in my addresses and having them all print out be such a time-saver? Actually no. No it isn't. I've been sitting here for 2 hours trying to figure out why the printer has decided to not print anything. It has been "warming up" for hours and has yet to actually do any work. Which is kind of like my approach to exercise, come to think of it. I could have hand-written all of my labels 4 times by now...but that would be letting the machines win. And as Hollywood has taught me, we can't let that happen. So the Christmas cards are sitting here waiting for labels. And stamps. But after my fight with "David" at Walgreens over whether I should be allowed to take my photos home it feels like I've invested way too much in these cards to just let them sit here and welcome 2012.

My shopping? Done. Well, except for a couple things for a certain spouse who came up with a list for Santa on Monday. And a certain oldest son who decided all other requests can fall by the wayside because what he really wants for Christmas is a shiny gold bell from the harness of Santa's reindeer. (Guess who read The Polar Express at school 2 days ago.) 2012 rule: all Santa lists must be submitted by Thanksgiving.

Wrapping? Not even started. Blank notebooks that need to be turned into books for spy maps, codes, and plans? Hmm. Better get on that. Grocery shopping for Christmas Eve and Christmas dinner. Nooooope.

And yet I feel like I'm actually way ahead of where I normally find myself 4 days before Christmas. That is sad.

The baby is screaming - did you know those things like to be fed like every 4 hours?!