The bulletins for Christmas eve service are finished – printed and waiting to be delivered to the woman who puts them together. She will be so thrilled to have them ahead of time – and I am also thrilled to not be doing them on Christmas Eve!

The Christmas cards went out over the weekend and I’m not baking this year, so the only thing left to be done is the most dreaded of all tasks – the wrapping. Last year, I was blessed by a freak snowstorm that closed my office and I was able to stay home all day and wrap. Since it’s nearly 60 degrees this week, not much chance of that. I thought of paying one of the youth to do it but that seems wrong. As much as I hate wrapping, I feel like wrapping is all part of the gift giving experience. Now the challenge is finding the time to do it. I just had a terrible image of me wrapping gifts on Christmas morning before driving to my parents house. AAAAHHHH. I hope it doesn’t come to that.

I have many things in mind to blog about but at the moment my energy is fading. Perhaps tomorrow…unless I wrap!

Once again, life is put into perspective.

Yesterday started off as a much better day. I went into a weekly meeting at work and when I came out, I received an email from my friend Kris that the medical director at my previous employer had been killed in a plane crash. He left behind a wife and a son that he loved so dearly, as well as many patients and colleagues whom he touched.

I noticed another email from my friend Michael asking me to call him. As he works at the same company, I assumed the news was the same. I called him and immediately said that I had heard and started asking him for details on the plane crash. He stopped me and said he had other sad news to impart – our friend Debbie lost her husband that morning to a heart attack. He had been sick and in the hospital but was scheduled to be discharged that morning. My heart breaks for Debbie – I cannot imagine how hard this is. I tried to call her today but I understand from others that she is out making the arrangements. I’m praying for her and just hope she is holding up ok – as well as can be expected.

How petty and stupid my whinings on Monday seem.

Well, today was definitely one of THOSE days.

I was late for work because I am having trouble with my new contacts. The right one is basically a piece of cling wrap and impossible to put in my eye. It folds itself up nicely into a little ball and is virtually impossible to unfold. And when it is finally unfolded and put in, it’s usually inside-out, causing great pain so I have to take it out again and start the whole maddening process over.

A major project I have been working on for the last few weeks got canceled with no notice. It’s really frustrating to walk away from the day feeling like the bulk of work you did for the last few weeks was for absolutely nothing.

I ordered a puppet we need for several puppet show outreaches our puppet team is doing for church on Saturday. I ordered it to be sent by Wednesday to the leader of that team. This morning, the company called to say they could not have it by Wednesday and they could not ship to this address. I have no idea why (on either account) so now it is coming to me by Friday for a Saturday performance.

I stopped at the store on the way home because I wanted to make one of those fleece blankets that have the edges all tied together for someone for Wednesday. Fleece is expensive!!!! I thought this would be an inexpensive project. But it’s not…so it won’t get done, unless I find the fabric elsewhere cheaper.

I came home, ate and came on the computer to view the prints from a portrait I had taken of Normie yesterday (what an adventure that was!) only to find that they won’t be posted until tomorrow. So, I checked my email…to find that the 600 outreach fliers we were getting done for Saturday have the wrong website address on them! I had to order 600 more…and pay for them again…and I put in the person’s address to ship to who is printing them for me. When I looked at the receipt, I realized I put MY zip code on it, not theirs. So I tried to call but the place closed at 8. I sent an email and I’ll call again in the morning. Hopefully, I’ll get to them before it ships!

And now here I am catching up on my bloglines reading and I can’t seem to comment on anyone’s posts…why, I do not know. : (

Sigh.

I need a vacation!

I know to most people, this is not an astounding photo. But I haven’t had a Christmas tree up in four years. Part of that was due to my fuzzy fellow, who, on his first Christmas took one look at the tree and decide to take a flying leap right into the middle of it. And part was just due to my own general bah humbuggyness around the holidays. But this year, I decided I wanted a tree and went out Thanksgiving night to get one. I’m really happy with it – the size is just perfect and it’s pre-lit which is just fantastic. But I am also so happy to look at it and see all the ornaments I have on it that mean something to me. I have several cardinals, in honor of my Grammy. I have one that looks like our old dog, Thunder. I have a bunch of fabric pinecones that my friend Joann from my very first job out of college taught me how to make. I have a black & white Norm cat that Kym painted for me. I have a Dumbo taking a bath – because it’s just too darn cute. I have stars and bells and bows and a Christmas Wish ball that opens up and closes with a latch to lock in your special wish.

And it makes me happy.

Well, almost a surprise.

We planned Michelle’s birthday party (I won’t reveal which one but it’s a nice round number)for the Saturday after Thanksgiving. We told her it was scrapbooking night and thought we had her fooled. But she had an inkling!

The biggest surprise of the night wasn’t the lovely family rendition of “Happy Birthday” (and let me just say this – we had to warn those who aren’t familiar with this rendition and also ask them to cover up any small children’s ears! No, not because it is bawdy but because it is LOUD AND OFF KEY. It’s really quite a thing to behold!)
The real surprise of the evening was that her big brother Tim, his wife Fran and their son, Jesse, came up for it. That was really the icing on the cake and made Michelle’s birthday complete.

We love ya, baby! Happy birthday!

…also a tad late!

Aren’t we just lovely? It had rained all day the day before and it was drizzling as we walked around. But the rain held off until the race ended…
But just barely! We got caught in a TORRENTIAL downpour on our way out. It was kinda scary when they are coming on over the loudspeaker to tell you to move “quickly and safely out of the grandstand…the storm is fast approaching” over and over again. Metal stands + thunderstorms = not a good place to be!

I know I am behind on the photos these days – I promised back in October to post some pictures from Joshua’s first birthday. We are so thankful for Joshua – you might remember, if you have been reading the blog for a while, that he came six weeks early last October after a long and stressful labor and was in the NICU for a week.

I’m happy to say he is doing so very well and REALLY enjoyed his birthday! His exceptionally creative and talented Mom made this cake – and he got a whole block all to himself!