Taking Charge ~ December!

...and having a "day of rest" we are! We slept in past time for Sunday school but were in time for worship. We didn't stay for the hanging of the greens and/or lunch...except DD11.5; she is still there.

I just wrapped up the last bit of grading I needed to do this week end. Progress reports go home next week and I'm completely current! Wooo Hoo! I can't believe the first semester is almost over! 13 days before winter break...11 after and it's done! YIKES! I'm totally psyched about getting new classes/kids...and having a chance to try a few new ideas that I've had while teaching this fall. Fun, Fun, FUN!

The house is decorated, except for the tree, (which traditionally, we don't put up until next Sunday) and I FINALLY did a bit of baking yesterday. I put about 8.5 doz cookies in the freezer...and hope to match that later.

I've only a bit of shopping left to do...my mom and dad being the only two left where I don't even have a starting idea....sigh

I'm off for now!

Love to all!
Lenora

Lenora, you seem to be taking to all of this like a duck to water and still have a life left at the end of the day. Where on earth am I going wrong!?! I'm happy to see you're having so much fun with it though. The kids are bound to get caught up in your enthusiasm.

As for me... I spent most of yesterday in tears and today I get to wait at home for a while before going out in the cold and wet to watch DS8 in a school carol concert at a nearby church (not that near though!). He's apparently been chosen to read something as well. I have no idea how long it's supposed to last though and I'm struggling to get hold of my ops guy to tell him I won't be in till later - I forgot yesterday, he's not answering calls and his phone is switched off!

I've got dozens of errands piling up and never any time to do them in. DH has been away more than he's been home the last few weeks because of Harrods and my SIL is arriving in less than two weeks, which gives me just one weekend to get it together a bit, including getting her bedding from my mother. My grandmother had an angiogram yesterday and was promptly moved from her nice private room into the cardiac ICU ward she was in before, before being moved to another hospital entirely for angioplasty (that's the balloon in the artery thingy). All things considered, if I get through Christmas without having a nervous breakdown (increasingly unlikely after yesterday) then I shall consider myself to have done extremely well.

Lenora, I don't know if it helps but I found my mother a vase in the same pattern as her tableware - if I could've found a nice serving dish in the same pattern I'd probably have chosen that instead, but it was an antiques type place, and her pattern was discontinued. For my dad I've got a free sample of an electric corkscrew thing, plus various other things all related to alcohol, like Christmas Pudding ale! Maybe he'll take the hint that he's drinking more and more!

keep sane and keep looking for the magic everyone...

Kerri.

Just popping by to say hi! Must agree with Kerri, Lenora how DO you manage all that you do and still have time for fun and enjoying life? It takes me ten times longer than you to be ten times less organised

Life, as always, is chaos around here. The gifts are about half done, I haven't even THOUGHT about the Christmas decorations yet, not a card has been written either. I am even considering not sending them at all, which I have never done before, so things must be bad!

We're in Edinburgh this week checking out places in which we might like to live. Unfortunately DD had a terrible stomach bug at the end of last week, and she's still recouperating. So she's NOT interested in mooching around the frankly cold and windy streets of Edinburgh. Hope we might see some flats tomorrow.

Zillah

I wouldn't envy you that weather at all Zillah, but there are worse places in the world to live. The wind does blow in off the North Sea something chronic there though, and numbs everything it can! I went at the end of August one year and we had to buy extra clothing and we were still frozen. I imagine it's a good place to wear skiing clothes!

we got our artificial tree yesterday, as well as DS' shoes. It took us three towns to get the dratted shoes mind you. I think we achieved quite a bit to be fair yesterday, including enough wrapping paper to gift-wrap the Titanic, never mind sinking it! Since DH was there too I managed to pick up a few more bits for the kids too, which is good because I'm all out of time now, because my SIL is arriving this coming Friday. I still want to get them some Lego and some Magnetix, but I'll have to do it online if I'm to have a chance. I need to lay out what I've got and see what there is. I've never been one for massive presents, so I can get a lot of gifts out of the same amount most people seem to spend on one item these days. Oh heck - stockings!!! Haven't really got anything much, so that's a crisis waiting to happen. Particularly with me busy two afternoons this week because of bloody carol concerts - it's hard to sneak off for a couple of hours in the school day when you've already got commitments like that. Bugrit.

The biggest problem with decorations is the time it takes to clear up the mess first so you can see where you're putting things. I bought a new curtain pole and curtains for the dining room - ours fell off the wall back in August - but I can't see them going up anytime soon, unless we get help. It's funny but Christmas dinner seems to be the least of my worries really. I ordered my beef yesterday too - 2.5kg of rolled rib, which I'm hoping will be tastier than the alternative of topside. It's a good butcher too, so all I need to do is turn my oven to it's lowest setting and I have a chance of not incinerating it! I need to figure out timings of course, but I'm not about to do it now. I still need a few more veg, but I'm not especially concerned. I'll think of something and my kids like most veg well enough except mushrooms and peas.

time I got some beauty sleep... preferably before midnight. The wind is howling a gale out here tonight so all the stupid vents keep rattling. A bit like me I s'pose... rattling on here instead of going to sleep. I miss you guys I guess, and my old, less fraught lifestyle where I could come and babble several times a day if I wanted.

Kerri.

Oh, the combination of Christmas, thesis, moving and DH being away during the week is doing me in. In addition DD has just decided that now is the time to drop her afternoon sleep. NOoooooooo. She went round to a friend's this afternoon, which gave me a chance to do some printing, but really I'm feeling very grumpy about the fact that at the very time I need looking after there's no-one here to do it. Sorry, grump over.

As to the house. Well. We eat, we have clean clothes and many crucial areas such as chairs and floor are clear from stuff. Can't be too bad.

Now, must go and finish DD's angel costume for playgroup party tomorrow, write my abstract, unpack the shopping and try to get to bed in a reasonable time.

Zillah

that and "life's too short" are my phrases to live by these days Zillah and I think you're in need of... something! Words of support and empathy are what I can offer. The costume would be the first thing that I would cut corners on personally, but it takes me months to get round to sewing a button on, so clearly not everyone's priorities are the same!

Keeping mother sane is one of my major priorities, but it's a full-time job thanks to everything else. My morning pages which would be so helpful rarely get written any more - maybe once a month. I've simplified Christmas dinner, ignored my father's jibes, avoided extras and anything else I can do to make my Christmas a bit less frantic. I still intend to enjoy my Christmas gatherings and since most of my gift and card recipients know roughly what my life's like these days (and the rest I care a lot less about!) they won't worry if things get missed here and there.

think of DH being away as a bonus Zillah. That's the time when you can get things done and the bits you need his help with will just have to be saved up to the weekend. I've lived with that lifestyle a bit too much to really be bothered by anything but the longest of absences these days. And I tend to find that when he's home my routine gets messed about and I get nothing done because the focus is entirely on him. Isn't that sad! Well hopefully things will be different one day but I won't hold my breathe.

Reduce, minimise, simplify... keep your sanity! And if you need to grumble about things you can't grumble about at home then you know we're all sympathetic and can offer all the shoulders you need.

Kerri.

I've come to terms with the fact that NOTHING about the holidays will be the same as "before." I'm working, MIL is gone...either one might have made the holidays awful, but dealing with both has made it SO completely different that it isn't so bad. Doing everything differetly makes more sense...KWIM?

I'm on Winter Break until Jan.3rd. The DDs and I slept in today, took my parents an aniversary (44 years) gift, and tonight the DDS have some sister-friends spending the night. Tomorrow I'm hauling the 4 of them to see Eragon and hopefully I'll get my holiday grocery shopping done while they're seeing the movie.

We have friends coming over tomorrow night....(MUST remember "adult" beverages)...have "Christmas" with my sister and her family and our parents on Saturday night..I'm cooking for Christmas Eve (just us and my parents) and then Christmas breakfast, and food for Monday, of course. YIKES, I'm dreading THAT receipt!

Thankfully, my gift shopping is totally done...although I've only wrapped ONE gift so far ...can you say "procrastinate?"

I'll try to peck-in tomorrow...I miss you guys!
Much love,
Lenora

...checking it twice....

...still probably forgetting SOMETHING!

I got up early and did my grocery shopping before the girls woke up. I took the 4 of them to the movies at 11:30 and grabbed a couple of "just-in-case" gifts while they were there. I also spent a nice 30 minutes at a coffee shop ALONE! That may be the best gift I get! This afternoon I need to tidy up the main floor and mop; make crab dip, and chill a couple of bottles of wine for later.

Tomorrow we're (the whole family) ringing the Salvation Army bells for a couple of hours before going to my parents for dinner and family gift exchange.

I absolutely MUST find time to wrap, too. I may hop up right now and wrap DH's gifts and those for Saturday. Then DH can help me wrap the rest. My gift doesn't really need wrapped since its been here for 3 weeks! I'm getting a new laptop! (DH has everything all set up on it but won't let me have it until Monday! ) I forbid DH from doing ANYTHING else for me...and I MEANT it!

Well there's a plan, then. I'm off to the dungeon while the DDs' friends are still here to wrap (until 3:00 pm) Then I'll run the friends home and come back to tidy up, mop and cook a bit. I need to get some cookies and fudge out of the freezer, too. (I made the BEST EVER peanut butter fudge last week!)

Love to all!
Lenora

We had friends (grown-up) here last night for food and games. We played scrabble (which I won) and Uno (which I didn't) ate too many munchies, and raised a glass (or two) of cheer to old friends. It was good.

Here it is 11:00 am only two days before Christmas and I'm still in my PJ's and bathrobe! YIKES....put me on the "lazy" list for today!

Not much for me to do...some more wrapping (I DID get DH's gifts and those for tonight done!) ringing bels at 2:00 pm, dinner at my mom and dad's, and I need to make the dough for tomorrow's rolls this evening...and roast the pinenuts (go in the beef) and pecans (go in the salad)...I may make the dressing...and set the table if I get really energetic (possible, but not likely!) I've got two loads of laundry going and a third waiting....once the whites are done we're easily good until Tuesday! I need to iron the linens for tomorrow...

Well, heck I guess I have more to do than I thought...

...where's that darn list?????

Love to all,
Lenora

Ahhhhhhhhh......relaxation. "Nothing" is a highly under-rated activity. Personally I've enjoyed it thoroughly today!

I hope you all had/are having a wonderful holiday week. DD16 is at a sleepover gift-exchange with the "girlfriends" tonight and I think that's our last "Christmas" event on the books. We really stretched Christmas this year. We started last Saturday, then added a Tuesday event...and DD16's party tonight. I expect DH and the girls to do something for my birthday on Saturday but they haven't clued me in about it, yet!

We're staying in for New Year's Eve and I've got dinner for New year's Day planned (but not bought.) I still have a bit of schoolwork to do, too...not the least of which is writing two final exams! I also need to finish the scoring guidelines for my foods classes final cooking lab. I've got it pretty close to finished but I keep changing my mind on a couple of points.

Anyone else gearing up for eating/exercising goals for 2007? We've decided to visit the Grand Canyon this summer so we're planning a family "get-fit" program so we can do one of the overnight hikes! All 4 of us will need to work on endurance...we all need to be more active, anyway! Maybe we can revive the "New You" thread...?

Well, I think this makes 4 posts in a row for me....where ARE you guys?

Love to all,
Lenora

We had a lovely Christmas day with my parents and other family. I didn't eat too many goodies - even managed to lose a few pounds! Not quite sure how I managed it, but I'm not complaining.

Happy Birthday Lenora!

Honey