Oh my gosh, it's been a while! We had a great trip!!!

Are you ready for Christmas? I just finished up wrapping the gifts, and the stockings are done. We are going to Greg's parents tomorrow night, and will spend the night. Before that we have a visit with some neighbors, and a service at our church. I'll be singing with our cantata choir a couple of the songs we did last night at the cantata. It's been so busy, and Greg's been sick since yesterday with the flu. My throat is raw and scratchy, and I'm exhausted. Remembered I forgot to pick something up for one of our neighbors (he's elderly and very lonely, and I always make it a point to remember him. So I'm trying to decide if it's worth running into town or not.

I love Christmas, but I find it so easy to lose perspective. It's rather complicated, you see, because generally Christmas is spent with Greg's family. They all have more money than we do, and they're all the type of people that you wonder what to get for them because they already have everything. If it were my family, I know how much fun we'd have whether we gave big or little or no gifts. So that part of Christmas I don't like. I do like buying for my own family, cause I just KNOW they will like what I get them. And Greg doesn't know his own family well enough to be much help, so each year I stress through the gift-buying for his side, and have a grand time for the gift-buying for my side.

I didn't do a lot of baking this year. We don't eat sweets like a lot of families do, so where we aren't even having Christmas dinner here, I decided to forego too much baking. Was a good decision.

I would love to think that for Christmas next year, I will start early on in the year. Of course, I say every year that I'm going to start early. I suggested to Greg that perhaps we should write out a list in Jan. of who we need to buy for, and ideas, and then buy one or two gifts per month so that by the time Dec. rolls around, most of it will be done. And we'd just have our own family left (the boys and us, I mean). Wouldn't that be nice??? *sigh*

Well, I am beat, and I have a HUGE list of things to accomplish tomorrow before our busy evening out, so I must go.

MERRY CHRISTMAS! And God bless us, every one!