The Busy Season

So, here it is...the busy time of year. Whoever said it doesn't really get crazy until after Thanksgiving, doesn't know what it's like to try to bargain hunt for Christmas, convince siblings that really, it's time to stop giving each other gifts now that we're all in our thirties, convince Mom and Dad that yes, we really will buy you something and FOR PETE'S SAKE quit buying crap for yourselves when Christmas is 7 weeks away(!!), and figure out what the heck we are giving to family in Ireland and get that all bought (or made!), wrapped, packed, and shipped by the middle of next week, thank you very much.

Yep, I've got at present 4 emails from friends that are going unanswered, because even with all of the above, I am still expected to parent my children, clean my house, and run all the errands I normally do. SO. TOTALLY. UNFAIR! < /whine>

Let me see, today was crazyness personified. First off, DH is coming home late from work, thus rendering my normal parenting day about 4 hours longer than it normally would be. Which, frankly, might as well be 24 hours, because it meant I had to get the kiddos fed, diapered, PJ'ed, and into bed--a mean feat when DS screamed his head off while I read DD stories, then DD thumped and bumped in her room doing her best to either a) drive me batty or b) keep DS awake, or c) both...oh yes, and during all of this the bird was shrieking because SHE hadn't been put to bed. Oh joy.

And I have to send "The List" to MIL. These are things we usually enjoy for the holidays and which normally we buy at exorbitant prices from an online British grocer, but this year due to DH's small inheritance from his great-aunt and the annoyance of changing it to dollars, etc, my MIL is going to buy it all in Ireland and then ship it over. So we get to look like TOTAL pigs to them, basically, because here is our list:

Lyons tea (5)
Lyons decaffeinated tea (3)
Cadburys selection boxes (4)
Harvey Nicks mulled fruit jam (2 jars)
Mr. Kipling cherry bakewells (2 boxes)
Mr. Kipling Viennese whirls (2 boxes)
Marks & Spencer mini flapjacks (3 cans)
Marks & Spencer dark chocolate jaffa cakes (3)
Marks & Spencer deluxe mini mince pies (with the cherries & nuts) -- 2
Marks & Spencer mini mince pies (no cherries or nuts) -- 2
milk chocolate Hobnobs (2)
plain Hobnobs (2)

Yep, PIGS. Oh, and today for some reason that I find unfathomable, I invited our neighbor over with her two kids to decorate pumpkins. And then, I couldn't actually FIND any pumpkins at the grocery store, except for 2 behemoth pumpkins totally unsuitable for small kids to glue goggly eyes and other small decorations on. So I had to use my neighbor's two small pumpkins. Talk about feeling bad! And after that was done, help her out by picking them up from their mechanic's after they dropped their car off for servicing, come home, put my kids down for their naps (a prequel to tonight's bedtime, btw), then...make cookie dough! Because, of course, I didn't have ENOUGH to do, I had to make cookies for Halloween! We couldn't let our Halloween cookie shapes and sprinkles go unused! Oh no! So basically during the hour that DS slept, I made cookie dough, and managed to write a few more sentences on some reply emails. Then I got to schlep the kids to the grocery store to finish our shopping, after getting DD some lunch at a drive-through (because she was so tired from the excitement of having her friend in OUR car that she went straight to bed when we got home). And then come home and bake cookies.

So here I sit, eating mini Snickers bars and drinking milk, telling myself that surely this counts as a full meal because the Snickers have peanut, so there's my protein...and I'm drinking milk... Uh-huh. And what am I going to do after I finish this blog? Well, I can either go design our invitations for our Christmas party, or I can go finish undoing my totally, horrendously screwed up row of knit/purl stitches on DH's sweater, that I'm attempting to make for him for Christmas. And to think I do all of this to myself...I must be crazy!