Steph's Stressed - & the Season's Just Begun!

I can't believe that we are only 3 days into the Christmas season, and already I am totally stressed out!

Our tradition is to decorate the house the weekend after Thanksgiving. Usually my dad and I go to get our trees on Saturday. We have our favorite seller where we've gone for years. Dad and the owner know each other by now, and I think they both get a kick out of the haggle. I don't mind so much seeing as since dad gets such a big tree, the owner almost kicks mine in for free! But this year, dad didn't want to get the trees this weekend. I don't know why, but I can't go without him - that's the tradition! So that has thrown me off. I thought I may go ahead and do all the other decorating, but I had so much to do this weekend that I wasn't really "free" until about 2:00 Sunday. Even with the girls "help" I'm not sure I could have gotten it all done by the evening, and the cleaning ladies come tomorrow, so it had to be done and out of the way so they could clean...the outcome - I haven't started decorating yet! I hate putting it off - that means less time to enjoy it before I have to take it down. Plus, next weekend I have agreed to help a friend move (I know, what was I thinking?!), Morgan has a basketball game, and Jordan has winter formal. It's not like it will be less busy than this weekend was!

I decided to be a good mother and make memories this year. The girls and I haven't done any holiday baking in years. So, I bought the stuff to make the peanut butter cookies with the hershey kisses on top and gingerbread cookie dough & cream cheese icing. Ambitious, I know, for a non-cook! I decided we would make the peanut butter cookies today. Of course, the girls didn't want anything to do with the baking, only the eating! So much for making memories...The first batch I undercooked and put the kisses in too soon so they totally melted. The second & third rounds went a little better, but they still aren't as pretty as when my mom makes them. At least they taste good! But that sucked up an hour and a half of my day.

Moving along to the shopping. I am actually in really good shape. I am done with my family's gifts. All I have left is the girls, my boss, and maybe a friend or two. And I have the money to shop (thanks, Dave!) so that's no big deal. But when will I have time to go shopping?? I would rather shop online, but then I'm peeved when they charge you an arm and a leg for shipping and handling. I like the mall this time of year, so I will probably venture out soon, but the girls have asked for items that I won't really be able to get at the mall, but rather at places like Walmart and Target - which are not fun this time of year!

My calendar is filling up, I haven't bought an ornament for the ornament exchange (& you know I'll have to cook for that, too), my friends want to have a Christmas celebration so I guess I'll be planning that! Yeah - it's official - the holidays are here!

The Girls Visit Me at Work

A few days ago, the girls had to come to my office at the end of the day. This is always stressful as my office is pretty quiet and the girls are, well, not! As I led them to my cube Jordan blurts out, "Oh my God! I would die if I had to stay cooped up like this all day!" I agree, but that's not the point. The point is that everyone heard her. As if we don't feel bad enough about our lame station in life! Then they began picking apart my desk space. Neither were happy with the pictures I had of them, but Jordan did comment (again, loud enough for everyone to hear), "Wow, I'm really busting out in that shirt!" And they think I 'm embarrassing!

I needed to finish a couple of things before leaving, so the girls occupied themselves by writing on my whiteboard. At first, they were writing silly stuff, then Jordan decided to write "I 'heart' Women" - like it was some funny joke on me. I started muffle yelling at her to erase it - that I work with lesbians, and didn't want HR to pay me a visit for sexual orientation slurs in the workplace. I said, "You want me to get fired?"

So they decided to play hangman. They were pretty good, but still a little loud. As we were living they only caused a minimal stir tromping through with all their crap.

On the way home Jordan informed me that she wouldn't get any work done if she was me because she would spend the whole time writing on the white board. I told her that I like it, too - and in fact Jeremy and I do play hangman every now and again when we need a break! To which Jordan responded, "So you're not worried about getting fired for playing hangman during work, but for having 'I "heart' Women' on your board?" From the mouths of babes!!