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I have one of those tension headaches that starts somewhere in the guts of my brain and travels all the way down my spine, taking a lengthy and anxiety-ridden stop at my shoulders.  Let me go out on a limb here and proffer that I'm not the only Mom who feels like the more fun we make the holidays for everyone else in our lives, the less fun it often is for us.  Not that I don't enjoy Christmas, because in theory, it's my favorite time of year.  It's just that in practice, it's a heck of a lot of work and I'm so overwhelmed this last week before Christmas, that even if someone were to offer me help, I wouldn't even know the first place to tell them to start.

With the Christmas party behind us, I thought I'd have tons of time to devote to getting our gifts out and ready before Christmas, but then we all got sick and now it's down to the wire.  I have a handful of gifts yet to purchase and that feels like it's only the beginning of my to do list.  I still have to wrap everything, build the larger toys, write our Christmas newsletter, address, stuff and mail 80 envelopes, buy and wrap teacher gifts, order our prime rib for Christmas day, and still manage to keep the laundry pile from coming to life and chasing me down the hall.  It's a lot to do.

But I'm trudging on.  I'm trying hard (and often failing) to keep a happy attitude for the kids.  I want them to love this time of year, not feel like they're the victims of my over-ambitious to do list.  I say this every year, but this time I'm keeping the promise: start earlier next year!  Next year instead of complaining about how they have the Christmas decorations out with the Halloween stuff, I'm going to sit down and begin my to do list anew.  Maybe if I get some of the dirty work finished ahead of time, I'll be spending next December 19th sitting under the Christmas tree and relaxing instead of chasing extra strength Tylenol with a cosmopolitan.