Braindead

I've been working on a blog post for no less than 3 days now, and it's about a third of the way finished. I think I'm just going to leave it in 'edit' mode and move on. I was trying to fill you all in on how wonderful, stressful, and exhausting our trip was, then whine about how utterly busy and exhausted I am, but I just haven't been able to sit uninterrupted to finish it.

So, I give up!

Suffice it to say that the trip was long (8 full days) and exhausting, with no less than 841 miles traveled - inside the state and in a city that is only 4 hours away from here! Only in Texas.... But, I think my favorite part was the visit we had with Chuck & Cori (Mommy Stories). We spent Thanksgiving day with them and, I'm proud to report, we managed an entire Thanksgiving meal with not one adult around to help. Well, OK, we're adults now, but sometimes it's hard to remember that we're no longer the teenagers we once were. But, I'm still impressed that between the 2 of us, we managed to produce turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, squash, dinner rolls, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie and cake! What a feast it was...I probably gained a few pounds!

For now, I'm busily working on Christmas shopping, Christmas cards, and trying to muster the strength to pull out our 11 year old tree for set-up and decorating. I told Michael that I really wanted to buy a REAL tree this year, but I changed my mind when we went shopping on Tuesday and discovered they were around $65+. I think I'll stick with my fake tree and suck it up when I start getting my yearly rash from putting the lights on the scratchy branches.

Once the decorating has been completed, it's on to my least favorite part of the season...gift wrapping! I was the designated gift wrapper at my house growing up. My mother always made me wrap everyone's gifts - except mine, of course - because I was so anal about how perfect the finished product looked. Each bow had to be a perfect match to the paper, color coordination was a must, and every corner had to be sharp and precise. Some things never change! I'm still just as anal about it, but now I loathe the whole process. Of course, it doesn't help that some of our gift wrap is as old as my marriage (11 years and counting)! I'm just tired of looking at it! Every year, I buy a new roll or 2, then do my best to use up the old stuff, but I just can't bring myself to do it. Even our family comments on how old the paper is and how they remember seeing it, again & again, each and every year! So, I think I've decided that while Michael isn't looking, I'm going to toss it out and just buy all new paper. The local party store sent out a flier announcing "50 Yard Rolls of Christmas Gift Wrap for only 69 cents" so I just can't pass up the opportunity to look at something new. Maybe new paper will make wrapping all of the gifts less of a chore and more enjoyable...though I highly doubt it!