Two days until the big day and we are running on fumes!  I braved Costco yesterday for some groceries and it was packed with both shoppers and sampling stations.  We had so many samples we went home completely full!  A man hawking red velvet cake told another man, “Hey buddy, put this on a nice platter and you’ll be Martha Stewart!”  My children got a lot of nice smiles and comments from strangers.  Numerous people looked at me sympathetically (“Wow! You’ve got a lot of work to do!”) and two well-mannered teenagers (whom Santa must be extremely proud of) offered to help me put my groceries on the checkout belt.

I still have a few odds and ends to pick up but have to figure out some way to do it without my kids coming along.

At this point, our main mission is “scrubbing for Santa.”  The house needs a good clean.  We have been so busy going to activity after activity these past few weeks that the house has been neglected.  My husband begged me not to share this embarrassing fact with the world . . .

We haven’t put up our tree yet!

Although this must seem shocking and perhaps sinful to the Christmas purists, decorating has been dead last on our priority list this year.  I don’t really find this embarrassing, however, as we have been doing so many things for Christmas (parade, Santa train, Christmas photo, three Christmas ballet performances) not to mention all the shopping and mailing that we are full of the Christmas spirit.  The decorating is just “stuff.”

We still have time of course and we will haul the tree out of the basement and get it up today.  As of this moment, all we have done is decked the front hall with our staircase garland.  I do agree that decorating makes a big difference in the feel of a house.  It puts you in the holiday spirit for sure.  My children oohed and aahed as we plugged in the garland, dragged in a boom box and danced an impromptu holiday concert in the front hall!

Since I am under major stress at the moment, as I suspect many people are, I will finish off the posts today with two extremely simple and cute ideas from my 6-year old daughter.  Anyone can try these to get in the holiday spirit.

Wishing you wonderful holiday celebrations full of joy, love and bonding time with friends and family!  If you are sprinting for the finish line like I am, wishing you energy and health as well!