Christmas is coming

Has Christmas snuck up on anyone else as much as it has on me this year? I am feeling so far behind and unprepared. On Wednesday, Emily & I actually got around to frosting the cut-out cookies we baked last week during the snow storm. Along with the usual bread, milk and bottled water, there apparently was a run on Christmas sprinkles last week before the snow storm. I went to 3 different stores and got the last bottle of Christmas sprinkles at Super Target in Waterloo on Tuesday. They weren't even very exciting sprinkles, but Emily didn't care. She was just excited to be in charge of putting them on the cookies. I'm pretty sure that just as many sprinkles ended up on the counter and floor as on the cookies, but that's okay, too, because they went nicely with the glass of OJ Emily spilled on the floor at breakfast. If you have to mop--you might as well make it worth it! ;o) We definitely won't win any cookie decorating contests, and for many reasons these cookies will only be consumed by our family, but it's a fun tradition and activity.

I also had to enact a "no touching the Christmas tree" rule this week. After cleaning up the remains of 3 broken ornaments (none of which were at all sentimental to me) and finding more ornaments scattered around the floor and house than still left on the tree I decided that that was enough. So far, Emily has pretty much stuck to the new rule. Maybe she just got bored and is ready to move on.

After several late nights and a little help from Emily, I FINALLY have all the Christmas cards ready to drop in the mail. This is one of my favorite holiday traditions--both sending and receiving cards/letters. I'm usually the type of person who has my cards ordered by Thanksgiving and everything ready to drop in the mail by Dec. 1. This year I totally procrastinated after deciding I really didn't care for the photo card I ordered. Oh well. If you happen to receive a card with a slightly crooked stamp or address label you'll know why. ;o)

So now I should probably concentrate on putting together and wrapping gifts. Maybe I'll get around to dipping the holiday pretzels by New Year's. Maybe. :o)