Christmas

Every year, my plan is to get all of the holiday activities finished early so I can sit back and actually be present in the moment for Christmas week. Every year I fail, so it has actually become my quest to simply fail less than in previous years. I was doing very well this year until I got sick, but it helped that my daughter was here with a Christmas fire in her belly after two holidays spent abroad.

This is how this year stacked up:

Avoid malls after mid-November: I actually exceeded my goal here and did not set foot in a mall after the first week in November. That one was easy since that last time it was a little scary how people kept trying to spray fragrance on me and examine my hands for dry skin all over the mall.

Buy 4 pounds of butter, or cause 4 pounds of butter to be bought: Check.

Buy fifth pound of butter after an unfortunate accident involving glass in the cookie dough.

Make English Toffee--this year we were blessed with the spontaneous manifestation of the miraculous toffee parakeet (see photo). We may be putting it on EBay, so stay tuned.

Pick out a Christmas tree from Dean Mueller's front yard and stash it in the garage until my daughter, the Christmas slave, (she prefers elf) was home home to decorate it. Yes.

Get all presents wrapped and mailed on time. Sorry Mark.

Finish all knitting projects. Almost. It is difficult when pairs are involved. The hat was done, the scarf was done, but only 1.5 socks, and 1.8 slippers were finished.

Make and eat several really large meals in the days leading up to Christmas. (Ring in the New Year with leftovers, and more leftovers.) Despite well-meaning advice to go for restaurant take out, once the fridge was full, there was no choice but to empty it.

Play games with the family. This year it was bridge, food trivia, and Rock Band 2. We could have played more of all of them, but the need for sleep kept interfering.

Avoid seeing commercials where couples give each other a Lexus with a big bow on the roof and it is a surprise. Especially the version where the small child is in on it. First of all, this woman has emptied the family bank account or taken out a very large loan and her husband is oblivious. Then she tells the kid what she's up to and he apparently doesn't spill the beans to Dad five minutes later. I succeeded for the most part, but I am clearly still bearing the scars of having been infuriatated during previous years.

Listen to just nice Christmas music and nothing annoying. This is extemely challenging and remains a goal for next year.

Get and give presents that can be folded into the household possessions within 24 hours. I need help with the edibles this year. Chocolate anyone?

The ultimate goal, of course, is to make the holiday less commercial and more fun. The very best part his year was having both the kids at home...second best was probably the butter.