Christmas delay

It’s December 12th.  Christmas is 13 days away.  We have no Christmas tree up yet, no lights put up outside, no Christmas cards addressed, about 10% of Christmas gifts purchased (nothing wrapped or mailed yet), and no cookies or candy made.  It’s not that I’m a Grinch…or well, maybe I am.  But no, I love Christmas, but it seems like I’m always scrambling to get stuff done just days before the big holiday comes.

Me?

My sisters-in-law are always ready for Christmas by Thanksgiving time…and then they pack up and put away Christmas decorations on Christmas day or the day after.  Hell, I’m just getting the Christmas spirit by then. It’s a lot of work to carry all those boxes of stuff up from the basement, and carry the empty boxes back down the stairs again.  I want to leave it all out for at least two weeks before dragging all those empty boxes back upstairs, packing it up, and dragging them all back downstairs.  Hmmm….maybe we should just do Christmas in the basement.

 

I made a weekend trip to visit my mother this past weekend.  It’s another thing I’ve put off for much too long.  It’s tiresome on this old KYLady to make a long trip like that, but it wasn’t a horrible drive.  I timed it right so that my travel would be during times of lighter traffic …well, it’s all heavy in comparison to what I normally drive in here in rural Kentucky.  My mother lives just outside of Washington D.C.  As bad as it was, it was nothing in comparison to driving in Houston.

 

So, this year, I made treks to visit my father and my mother.  My dad is 5.75 hours away, and my mother is about 6.75 hours away.  Both are in noticeable decline.  It’s depressing to think about them, but decline happens when people get old.  I should visit both of them more often…in all my free time. 

So, I’m back from Washington.  Now it’s time to make Christmas happen.  Tomorrow morning, I’ll carry all the boxes up the stairs and get started.  Well, just as soon as I finish up some paperwork (statistics) about my classes that just ended, and get that submitted.  Oh, and then I have to attend and introduce a speaker at a short meeting tomorrow afternoon.  Oh yeah, and my brother is coming tomorrow afternoon to help me with a car problem, and to have me help him unbox and set up a new laptop.  It’s nice when we can trade our expertise like that.  OK, so maybe I’ll only have time to bring boxes up from the basement tomorrow…but it’s a start…right after I walk Miss Gracie.   

I always miss her.