The pressure is on! I have to finish buying gifts and mailing them to family around the globe so that requires trips to the mail store this week. I have to start planning for various guests who are arriving at intervals over the next few weeks including my parents who are coming for Christmas. Meals are to be planned, grocery shopping lists made. The lights are finally all up and thank goodness for my daughters and son-in-law, as well as Jim, for helping me get them all working. I can't help it, am a big kid and I like lots of lights at Christmas, so we strung them along the fences out front and all up the drive as well. The bushes, trees and anything standing still have been covered by lights wound about from here to there! I think a freeze will have no effect on my roses as they are so wound in lights that surely the heat, as miniscule as it is, will keep them thinking it is a warm Sept. night?

I pulled out the Santa figurines, I have been collecting them each year since young, so let's just say that the mantle alone is not large enough to hold them all. And some years I might have picked up four or five so any desk, table, counter or shelf has the pleasure of a lot of fat men who are holding wreaths, lanterns or a bundle sack full of gifts. My kids love them, and I am pleased as they will one day have the pleasure of finding spots available to plunk them down too.
New batteries are inserted in moving objects such as the singing Christmas wreath that I have had for over 30 years, the lamp post that sings, Sinatra style, a Christmas carol that has since lost its integrity with the addition of doo, doo be doo be doo, doo be doo be doo...and so on?

Each card that arrives is neatly hung on the arch into the living room. Remnants of last years scotch tape are still visible if you look closely. I tear the return address label off of each envelope to be sure to add to the pile of "who gets a card in return". I started to wean the list of 300 or so down to a mere 120 after realizing I was sending cards to people who never, in 15 years, returned one to me. I figure they are doing unto me as I need to do unto them. Yeah, bah humbug but really, it is a lot of work to send 300 cards off.

The tree is up and decorated, it only took three days of asking Jim to set it up to get him to actually do it. I ask him, even though I can do it myself, to be sure to feel as though he is part of the whole Christmas tree magic...then I set to adding lights, ornaments and tree skirt, all the while going on about how one child was only 2 when I got this ornament, or this was made by one of our children when they were in first grade...I glance over and Jim, sitting close by at the kitchen table, is really reading the new book on Minerals of Northern England. Ah well, he dutifully nods and says "Aha" once in a while, he might even whistle along with the carol that's on the iPod at the moment.

I get a call from the "Friends of Downtown Rockwall", of which I think I am a committee member...they need help decorating the town square and since I helped with the decorating for the Thanksgiving holidays, surely I would come help? "Why of course I will" I say, all the while wondering why I don't go to meetings but only get calls when they need me to help? hmmm.

I call the kids and we pack up the wee ones to come see Santa that evening, I get there early and stand in line..thank goodness, it is around the building and out into infinity and the kids arrive to join me as I turn and tell all the impatient folks behind that they are with me. I outstare another Grandma as she gives her last snarl and feel good because I was better at making "the face" than she was. Yeah, Grandma Gail kicks ass! ( If you are not a Grandma, disregard the last sentence...you will never get it. )

I head down to our woods the next morning to pick up some stacked firewood and throw the logs in the cart behind our little mower. I am thankful that it is cold out and the critters that like to wiggle are not around to scare the heck out of me. After loading the cart that pulls along behind I put them on the back deck, next to the moveable fire pit so that we might enjoy an evening outside with some of our company in the next few weeks. I get a great sense of satisfaction that another job has been checked off on my list.

Baking has become a regular part of my routine since the passing of Thanksgiving. Pies, Cornish pasties, cookies and cobbler as well as sausage rolls, chicken pot pies are part of my duties throughout the holidays. I love to cook, so this is never a problem.
I have hung the stockings by the chimney with care, and I even added some treats to pad them nicely.

All the while I am looking at the minerals in the cabinets with longing, taking brief moments to stop and enjoy them as I pass with arm loads of laundry, decorations and groceries.
Time enough once the holidays are over I think, but oh yeah....the dust in those cabinets are nagging at me so I guess I know how I am starting my New Year!

Happy Holidays one and all, if ever in the Dallas area please do call and let's get together and talk about minerals?
Ho! Ho! Ho!

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