Countdown...

Just think, a short week from today Christmas will be winding down. The presents will be open (most of them anyway), the feast will be digesting and some people will be thinking about the after Christmas shopping (NOT ME)!

But in the meantime, I'm going to enjoy this last week leading up to the big day. Last weekend was spent finishing up the decorating,










getting laundry finished up so H could pack for his trip to Korea, some baking for a bake sale at school to benefit a 4th grade student at school whose family needs help paying for the back and forth trips to get him the help he so desperately needs (we raised almost $1,000, by the way) and other Christmas related things.

H got off to Korea just fine and didn't really enjoy his trip much, except for the very end when he got to see Tyler for an evening and a day. He's not a fan of kimchi and said most of the time he wasn't sure what he was eating. I would love to show you some pictures from that trip but at this time I'm unable to locate the cord for the camera to download the pictures and the card won't fit in any of the slots on my computer. Dilemma. Hopefully I'll be able to solve it soon.

This weekend I pretty much spent all weekend baking and decorating cookies for a cookie exchange at school and also to give as gifts to some friends.




I'm trying to remember if I promised myself last year that I wouldn't do t his again. At any rate, I did it but it sure took a lot of time.

I also finished up our annual Christmas letter, addressed and mailed all the Christmas letter/cards and wrapped all of the presents. I still have a few things to do before Christmas. One thing I have planned is getting the pups in for grooming. After all, they need to look good for all those Christmas pictures!
And maybe I'll get a manicure. I could really use one.

H got home this afternoon and he is very jet lagged. Lucky for him he has the rest of the year off from work! I wish I could say the same. Actually we have 3 days of school this week but I'm only planning to work on Monday and Tuesday. Monday will probably be the only day much work is done, and maybe Tuesday morning. Tuesday afternoon will be devoted to parties and our cookie exchange and then after school we will have our staff party. I am taking Wednesday off (one of those lovely mandatory days where I have to take it off and don't get paid) but I'm not really complaining because, barring any unfortunate delays, we are expecting company Tuesday night! Amber, Andy & Quinn will be driving in for the holidays. They will only be staying here a couple evenings before heading over to the west side to spend Christmas with Andy's family and then will come back here the day after Christmas for a little longer visit. We can't wait because Quinn has a little better understanding of what Christmas is this year and is " 'cited". When you ask her what she wants Santa to bring her all she says is "toys".

I'm sure she'll get her wish! She still won't sit on his lap though. No how, no way! Maybe next year!

One thing we may not get this year is our White Christmas. It's been very unseasonably warm. We've had mostly rain, only a little bit of snow and maybe 2 inches at a time at the most. Last week we had rain and what the weather man was calling "springlike" temps with high's on Thursday in the high 50's. We had so much rain last week that if it had been snow they said we would have gotten 8-10 inches. I'm glad that didn't happen though you will never hear me complain about a snow day!

The pups had a nice weekend thanks to Scott. He took them to the high school field both days. I was up to my elbows in cookies. They appreciated it.



So, the countdown for Christmas is on. I'm promising myself I'm gonna take it easy from here on out. After all, everything's done, right?

Have a good week!