This Cowgirl Needs More Elves.

I’m not quite sure how this has happened: Christmas has snuck up on me this year. In early December, I was feeling some pressure. Still exhausted from Thanksgiving preparations, I decided we weren’t going to send out Christmas cards this year. Instead, we’ll be sending out New Year’s cards. I hope. I naively believed this would solve everything.

To make matters worse, I cannot for the life of me decide what to get for Number One. There, I said it. My mind is a blank. Even amazon.com can’t help me with that.

I am usually better prepared. I have gifts stashed away, months in advance. I have lists of cookies we’re going to make. I have cookies made by now! Not this year. I have no idea how this happened. Santa doesn’t even know what he’s bringing H-Bomb, and now Christmas is a mere 8 days away.

I’m not a stranger to last-minute gifts and/or projects. But it’s that 8 days that has me worried. I finally decided what to do for (almost) everyone on our list. Most of the things are homemade. And all of the things Have Yet To Be Made. Yikes. Some of the things have to be mailed across the country. Uhhh. All the rest have to be hand-delivered. And I just told H-Bomb he could take cupcakes or muffins to everyone in his class. Sometime this week.

I am thankful for the internet, and the knowledge that my recent order from Sierra Trading Post qualified for free shipping because I answered the riddle in their catalog! (True, I got the answer off the internet, but how fun!) There are some gifts that still need to be ordered and/or assembled that simply will not be finished in time. No matter how hard I try. I am sorry about that, but I am letting those go. I have to.

I’m hoping that my list of duties is done expanding. (just say NO!) We’ve got Christmas cookies to bake, our tree just went up last night and is only partially decorated, we don’t even have our outdoor Christmas lights up. Granted we just bought them when we finally made it to a City on Saturday, but still. I am trying to cross things off the To-Do list, but which traditional cookies can/do you eliminate?

Things like this keep happening: my brother-in-law left a gift for my sister-in-law in my father-in-law’s car the other day. We saw my father-in-law on Saturday, and he gave us the package to give to my mother-in-law to take back to my brother-in-law on Sunday. Do you think this actually happened? Not a chance. CG crossing the cattleguard Sunday morning jarred my sluggish memory. I had to package and mail the gift on Monday. Not a big deal, but it all adds up, doesn’t it.

I realized This Morning that if I don’t send my parents’ gifts TODAY, they likely won’t receive them until after Christmas. They may not receive them before they leave for Florida. For three months. Ack. Of course the gifts aren’t even wrapped yet, and I have to ransack the garage for an appropriate box too.

All this is running through my mind this morning. I got up while it was still dark, hoping I could get some things done. I can’t find a headlamp and Number One hasn’t turned on the generator yet. I thought it would make me feel better to blog about this since it MUST be 4 or 5:00AM, right? Certainly there is extra time in the darkest hour before the dawn.

When I turned on the computer, it was 6:45AM. I am doomed, not to mention freaking out, and I need to wake up Number One because I’m sure not walking outside to turn on the generator-there’s snow on the ground!

If you see any elves looking for [unpaid] work, send them my way please. Oh, and just so I don’t forget, Happy Valentine’s Day.