Holiday Swamp

Despite the fact that I thought I was ahead of the game, I still fell into the usual hell of stess and to-do lists that inevitably preceeds Christmas. After weeks of preparation, shopping, gift making and planning, the 22nd of December was still like this for me:

pick up meds from vet
pick up dry cleaning
wash delicate clothes
hold mail at post office
buy gifts for pets
buy last gift for brother
finish wrapping gifts
make card for Brad
clean house
pack for Colorado
print recipe books and have bound and wrap
contact clients about late projects
contact snapfish about mailing address change

and for every item I sucessfully crossed off, I added another at the last minute . . . why must the approach of the holidays always be so stressful?

But now the to-do's are now crossed off and the Holdiays are here! Two nights ago Brad and I had our "Christmas" including a Christmas dinner date and the much-anticipated gift exchange. Exchanging presents with Brad has come to be a satisfying ritual of both giving and recieving the most thoughtful gifts of the season. I was spoiled with many new pieces of jewelery, a book, some other great housewares I wanted and of course, some pretty underwear!

Now we're onto the next phase of Christmas (and the actual day has yet to arrive), the family celebrations. Last night we traveled to my family's house in NJ for dinner, a long night of poker (in which I went head-to-head with my Dad after everyone else had been elimated and Brad passed out in a drunken stupor on the couch - then I lost) and this morning's Christams Eve gift exchange. At 6pm this evening we will get on a plane bound for Colorado to spend Chistmas Day and following week with Brad's family before returning home to Brooklyn, with even more presents, for our Rockin' New Years Eve Party.

Whew! My New Year's resolution may be to take a nice long nap. In the mean time . . .
Merry Christmas!