It has been a busy month. Since my last post, I’ve spent the majority of my free time shopping, planning parties or going to parties (most of which have been for my daughter who just turned 5). I’m now 4 states south of home visiting with my parents for a week (and having additional birthday celebrations as well as early Christmas gift exchanging). Meanwhile I have my BlackBerry on me which seems to indicate new messages constantly at all hours of the day and night. So so far my vacation has yet to feel very relaxing and this holiday season feels like more work than fun.
In truth, there is fun – the parties have been enjoyable, but they are busy fun. The trip has gone smoothly so far and it is good to see family, but again – busy days. I’m currently looking forward to the weekend after Christmas – once all the commotion has died down and I might have a chance to relax and unwind.
A big part of what has gotten me stirred up is the shopping which is ironic because (a) I did most of my shopping online and (b) due to leaner economic times, we’ve agreed to skip gifts for a number of people. In spite of that, I have been having a hell of a time. I ordered about 4 items from Amazon – one arrived the next day, another 2 days after that, the other two I needed to badger to get the gifts in the appropriate timeframe. And given that I was flying south to give some of these gifts, timing was important. Granted I should have worked out some of these details earlier, but I still had expected a smoother process than what I experienced.
So my daughter has now had 4 birthday parties and as many cakes, we’ve been to at least one potluck, and we will be having at least 3 Christmas gift exchanges before the month is over … and a New Year’s Eve party. I wonder whether the kids will be prepared for the present and sweet-free month that January will be. Hopefully their new toys will distract them from this fact for at least a little while. It has been a busy month … and it is far from over.