Christmas Decorations and Music

My Favorite Ornament

Enough with the drama that is my life the past two weeks.  Today's post is about something fun!

I've been blasting Christmas music ever since Thanksgiving.  Confession.  I really like Jessica Simpson's Christmas music.  I don't know what it is about her.  I just really like the music.  Oh Jess and Nick.  Baby It's Cold Outside was a wonderful song.  So nice.  You made wonderful music together.  And entertained me with mindless fluff.  And Jessica, you made me laugh...  So much more funny than the whole Kim/Kris drama.

Moving on.  The decorating hasn't been done yet.  I'm starting to stress about it.  I'm not going to lie.  I wanted to do it the weekend after Thanksgiving.  Rudy was visiting and my sister was home.  Which meant there were three of us because we all know that the Grinch isn't going to help us and my mom can't.  So the goal is to find a way to get it done this weekend.  But I also have to finish my shopping.  And do the Christmas cards.  I've been criticized again for not dong the Thank You Notes, even though nobody made a list for me.  It's a bit hard to get on that, seeing as it's a daunting task.  Maybe when I have some time off in a few weeks.

I need to get it done.  I don't want my mom to get stressed.  She's got a few jobs to do herself over the next few weeks.  I will have all the gifts, but they need to be wrapped.  She's good at wrapping and it gives her something to do other than watch TV.  It's going to take her a while, but it's something to do while people are visiting.  They keep saying they want to help out, and this is a way to do so.  Plus I hate wrapping....

I just need to get the stupid decorations up.  Stupid decorations.  And we need a tree.  Good grief.  The whole thing is compounded by the fact that I'm going away next weekend.  It's a much deserved break.  Much much deserved.  And needed.  Oh how badly I need this.  I'm going to see my school mommy and sister!  I miss them so much and I can't wait to hang out with them for a whole weekend!  I get to act like a normal person without all the responsibility for a few days.  My school mommy will make sure I'm fed, I'm rested, and she'll ask me about my life and offer good advice.  She'll do what my mom isn't able to do right now.  And that's just what I need.

So my list now includes putting up the decorations in record time (three hours is totally doable if I scale back slightly).  I'm a speed cleaner (it's a form of exercise if you clean the way I do) and putting up decorations is like cleaning in that you have to put everything back in it's place.  We decorate nearly every room in the house. No joke.  But I can clear the dining room in about twenty minutes (it's small), the living room in 30 (we do a lot of decorations in there normally but less so this year because nobody goes into that room unless its our open house which we canceled this year), and an hour on the kitchen and family room each, the two most used rooms in the house.  Each bedroom gets a few small decorations (more in my room than the others).  We do lights in the windows which takes about a half hour because we have to check all the bulbs and make sure they stick to the windows (PITA).

But while I'm doing all of this, I'll be listening to my Christmas music.  Which makes me super happy!  Yay!  Right now I'm listening to Harry Connick, Jr. It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas.  I used to love him on Will and Grace.  And I got my mom an early Christmas present, which I may have put on my iPod; the Micheal Bubble Christmas Album.  Haven't listened to the whole thing yet, but so far it's amazing.

Side note: I've already broken the cardinal rule of Christmas shopping: don't buy yourself stuff.  I just couldn't not get the Shirley Temple Box Set Volume One.  How could I walk away from it?  I adored Shirley Temple as a child.  She had curly hair like me.  She danced like me.  She could sing, something I wished I could do.  And we would watch her movies at my grandparents, so I have wonderful memories there.  Oh well, some rules are meant to be broken...

All over the place today I know.  It's just that time of year...