Tired Mama.com

The downside of Christmas

Is it just here or is anyone else's house um, trashed?

Yep, there have been three children and a husband home for the last week or so and I don't think any of them have done any cleaning, picking up or tidying. 

There is Christmas clutter on top of normal clutter on top of uh, more stuff.

It's a mess here.

I don't want to clean up. I don't want to argue with my family about tidying up.

But really? This has gotten out of hand. Our house is a mess. We NEED to start cleaning up and putting stuff away.

Let the nagging begin.

Sigh.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas.

Yes, I know it was yesterday but I was thinking about you. Honest.

Christmas here at our house was nice. It was quiet because a lot of our extended family spent Christmas looking for the sun down south, so it was just us.

We had turkey, we opened presents, we spent the better part of the day in our PJ's. It was low key and lovely.

But now Christmas is over.

So, now comes the hard part. This week I have to pack-up all the Christmas clutter and start to think about what I want the new year to bring. Should I go back to work full-time? Should we continue the house renovations? Should I focus and try to earn some real money with my writing or should I just spend 2010 trying to lose some weight and working on cleaning out the basement.

Blah.

Blah to all of that.

You know what? I have a week before the new year starts, I think I'll worry about all this stuff then. 

Right now I think I'm just gonna take a nap in front of the fire. 

Turkey leftovers and thinking about the future make me tired.

Oh Christmas Tree

Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree - your ornaments are history.

Why yes, that is in fact our cat's butt backside behind sticking out of our Christmas tree.

Sigh.

Christmas cards are beautiful

I'm still working on my Christmas cards. Yes, I know it's late. I got um, distracted by uh, life.

The card I am sending out this year includes a picture of my three children. The picture is one that I took at my niece's wedding a few weeks ago and, since all three of my children are smiling and looking at the camera in it, I decided to use it this year and save myself the expense of a trip to the Sears Portrait Studio.

This is another nice Christmas card.

Joy to all.

Carded

Tonight I'm working on writing out my Christmas cards.

I had decided I wasn't going to send out cards this year, but I changed my mind.

Why?

I have no idea.

I know that Christmas cards are expensive and are not environmentally friendly but you know what?

I like getting them and I even like sending them.

I like thinking about the people I'm sending  cards to as I write them out.

I like thinking that simply receiving a card from me might make some of my friends happy and I like knowing that the people I write to will know that I'm thinking about them.

If you don't send them? I get that. They are a lot of work.

But I'm sending mine anyway - for at least one more year.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Do not open the Visa bill.

I am blessed with having two beautiful, talented, brilliant and sweet daughters. One will be fifteen in a few months, the other is nine.

As I was sorting my Christmas purchases into piles this morning, I couldn't help but notice that one of my daughter's piles was rather large and the other one uh, wasn't.

Why is it easier to buy for younger children than older kids?

Why is it so much cheaper to buy big sparkly things for younger children?

Why do the things for my younger children look so much bigger than the things for their big sister?

I've actually spent more money on my older daughter than on my younger daughter, it just doesn't look that way. 

Santa, if you have any free time I could use some help over here.

Sigh.

Maybe I'll just wrap my older daughter's presents in bigger boxes....

Smack me

Climate change is at a crisis point.

Millions of children around the world are living below the poverty line.

Babys are being aborted because their parents cannot afford to raise them.

Our hospitals are full of people who are injured or terminally ill.

Um, and here?

I'm fussing because I can't get my Christmas garland to hang properly on the stairs.

Oy.

Advent Calendars are evil

Advent calendars are evil.

Yes, they are.

Why? Well, they are evil mainly because they cause stress.

Every time I look at our advent calendar I am reminded of how few days there are left before Christmas and then I start to panic about everything that still needs to be done. 

Advent calendars = Stress = Evil.

I also made the mistake of buying one of those pretty little advent calendars that you can fill yourself.

3 kids + 25 advent calendar pockets to fill = 75 things = More Stress = Evil.

Yes, I have to come up with seventy-five different things to put in the advent calendar every December. On top of the stockings, presents, cooking, cleaning, card writing, decorating, visiting, celebrating and gosh knows what else, I also have to come up with seventy-five love notes, chocolates or small toys to fill the stupid advent calendar with.

I don't have time for all of this.

It's evil, I tell you.

Eeeeevil.

It's beginning to look a little like...

It's the first of December.

So far this month?

I've already killed a poinsettia by over watering it. Seriously, it's December 1st, isn't there a law or something that says you can't kill a poinsettia the first week you get it?

Secondly, I forgot to fill the advent calendar before the kids came down this morning. Sorry, guys.

And finally? The cat is eating the Christmas village. It seems our kitten likes the taste of those little green plasticy-woody pretend tree things. All of my little village trees have tiny cat bites out of them now, it's like something out of an old Japanese monster movie. If they could, all the little village ceramic people would be running away and hiding.

Oy.

Can we just skip through to January? I'm not sure I want to continue preparing for Christmas if this is the way things are going to go.

Sigh.