Tis the Season

This is usually my favorite time of year. Last night, in the spirit of the season, I took the kids to a tree lighting ceremony. There were lots of carols, Gospel music (for a second we thought they were going to pass the collection plate) free giveaways (like Starbucks coffee and undies from Aerie), and an appearance by a former American Idol contestant. The event ended with a huge fireworks show and was just really nice.

But somehow, the whole thing put the pressure on and made me more anxious than anything. I started thinking of all the shopping I had to get done, the Christmas cards I have to order (and the picture to take), the winter clothes I need to sort out (the weather has finally cooled down and of course, the kids fit into nothing), the new clothes I need to buy, so on and so forth. To make it worse, my in-laws, whom we always spend Thanksgiving with, have decided they want to travel for Thanksgiving. And now they are talking about flying somewhere, hoping we'll follow. Flying all of us anywhere will blow the entire holiday budget so that's not going to happen. Basically, I'll be cooking. Not that I don't like cooking, but my mother-in-law is such a great cook and her down-home favorites do not compare to anything I'm capable of doing. Sweet potato souffle, real creamed corn, a fried turkey, the works! Who's going to make all of that?

My shoulders are all tense just thinking about the holidays. It's so not like me. I'm going to have to get back into the spirit of things. And to make things more manageable, I'm going to adhere to MamaLaw #2. I already have some holiday to-do lists and I will stay on top things. After all, there is still plenty of time.