tis the season
I was awake in the middle of the night last night feeling lots of stress about quite a number of things, among them the fact that I've done almost nothing at all to get ready for Christmas. And that's despite knowing about it way in advance! It turns out there are quite a few things happening in December that keep me from devoting all my time to holiday prep. Today was another busy day, but we grabbed a couple hours between engagements to buy and decorate our Christmas tree.
twinkling lights
I had told the kids earlier in the week that we might be able to get it Friday or Saturday, which to Zion and Lijah at least meant definitely Friday as soon as our book club friends left in the afternoon. Zion especially was practically vibrating with excitement. Only when I said maybe Friday I had been thinking that Leah would be home in the afternoon, and also that our kitchen would not have been destroyed by 13 people having lunch in it and then five kids eight and under doing chemistry with baking soda, vinegar, and canola oil (oh why did I give them the oil?!). But Leah graciously told us to go ahead, and the boys promised to work super hard on cleaning up while I strung the lights, and also there's torrential rain in the forecast for tomorrow... so we made it happen.
And I'm glad. The boys did do a great job cleaning up, and they put up most of the ornaments (I managed to get a few of my favorites up) without breaking a single one (the lightbulb that they broke was an unrelated coincidence). And now there's a major item ticked off my invisible to-do list, and the Christmas spirit in the house has risen by at least 45%. That'll help me get some presents made, right?