Thirty-five days

I feel like maybe Christmas is pulling a sneak attack this year as I have largely been going about my business and then I realized, um, that particular holiday is thirty-some-odd days away.



That's right, George. Time to get crack a lackin'.

I would like to decorate the mantel and the house and put up (but not decorate) the tree this weekend. T will be out of town, so I figure this will be fun for the kids and I to do. Then the four of us can decorate the tree when he's back after Thanksgiving

Other holiday-ish things I'd like to do:

• Bust out Elphabet the Elf (K family detail #1: we do the elf, but he is not a bad behavior narc or good behavior advocate. He is simply a visitor and loves hugs. He moves about the house at night when T or I can remember at 11:30pm each night. Ezra and Iris adore him. He has also been residing in a drawer in my dining room buffet for the last 330 days and praise the Lord no one has found him otherwise the jig would be up.)
• Look at the internationally-decorated Christmas trees at the botanical gardens
• Drive around and look at Christmas lights
• Make hoopty gingerbread houses
• Decorate Christmas cookies. Based on the gingerbread houses, I mean, the kids love to decorate stuff. Ezra isn't a crazy lover of sweets and neither is Iris, but both are a fan of globbing obscene amounts of frosting on a surface so why the hell not.
• Pick out two ornaments from the Angel Tree and have them each pick out a toy for a boy or girl.
• Go to the tree lighting near us that has real reindeer. I fully anticipate Iris flipping her wig at this.
• Visit Santa at the mall. Last year Ezra sat on his lap twice, we'll see what Iris deigns not-suspicious.

Most of these are becoming our holiday traditions. I like that because, yay! traditions, but also because I can easily plan what the heck we're doing from year to year. And with only five weekends (holy moses) between now and Christmas? It is ON. 

As for the shopping, I think I'm mostly on top of it. T has made his wishes known, and my Amazon Wish List is organized with Ezra and Iris labeled both for under the tree gifts and stockings. (K family detail #2: Mama and Papa give the gifts under the tree; Santa stuffs stockings.) So I just need to add everydamnthing to my cart and pull the plug.

Remaining gifts: my two brothers, J the Fabulous Sister in Law, my parents, my nephew. That's not too bad.

Right?