Santa Is Hiding Behind the Turkey

It's that time of year. With a wonderful smoky chill in the air, the snap of coming snow making you shiver, dry leaves crunching under your feet or tires as you go about your daily business. Autumn is a gorgeous season, the heat of summer finally easing and the excitement of winter quick approaching.

That also means that the main trifecta of holidays has us right in its grip. Three major holidays in three months, quite evenly spaced, and all of them carrying with it an excess of everything from fun to stress. It is simultaneously exciting and exhausting, and it is debatable that Christmas is the biggest of the three. It is for me, anyway.

Halloween is past, and carried off without too much of a hitch this year. Little Tinkerbell's costume went great, didn't look too stupid, and I got to wear 3 of my different costumes this year. And tomorrow is Thanksgiving, which isn't really stressful for me at all. Because I am not hosting or cooking. I'm sure if I was, I'd be catatonic right about now like my poor mom who is doing both of those things.

Oh no, so far the holidays of Autumn and Winter have been fantastic. It is the one looming up in December that has me panicking today. Yes. Christmas. In four and a half weeks is my favorite holiday, which is incredibly exciting since I've been waiting for it since about, oh, last February. I'm totally ready for the music, the movies, the decorations, the trees, the lights, the wonderfully fattening food, all of it.

However, there is one aspect for which I am so not prepared. Presents. OMG. I am freaking out. I have presents for my little family, my husband's family, and my family to figure out, and probably presents for some of my friends too! Holy crap! I'm gonna die! Now don't get me wrong, I've been throwing around ideas for presents since about September, but nothing concrete. Shoulda started sooner and poured some quick-dry cement into my thought process. Because now I'm totally having a fit because Christmas is FOUR AND A HALF WEEKS AWAY and I have PRACTICALLY NOTHING DONE!!!!

*Has a seizure*

See? I'm panicking. So today, while dinner is simmering in the crock pot because I actually managed the foresight to prepare for that, I am gathering my scattered brain from wherever it has all wandered off to and forcing myself to get right down to business! I have so much to do! I have so much to prepare! Why did I wait so long?!

I dragged out a handful of my craft items to work on at least 2 presents, and so far we've had nothing catastrophic to cause problems. Of course this is only 2 out of 7-13 presents I'm going to have to do, but still. I guess it's headway. Now I just need to figure out what in the world to do for everyone else and get right to work on it! Don't get me wrong, I still have little snippets of ideas at work here, but nothing actually viable in an "I can do this today" sense. I'm beating myself over the head about it right now, with a Christmas stocking filled with rocks. You'd think I'd learn, but noooooo.

*Sighs* Anyway, I'm pretty sure the paint is almost dried on Phase 2 of today's present concocting, so I'm gonna get back to that now. Wish me luck, and next year please remind me in August that I need to get my brain together so Christmas doesn't sneak up and attack me like it did this year!

Two Thumbs Up!

Ok, I just woke up from a bit of a catnap with my daughter. I am still tired, and therefore do not understand the rave about catnaps. But since it's 8:45 and I shouldn't be sleeping anyway, I'll let it pass. So now I am on my computer for the first time all day (shocker, I know), and the first link I clicked on from my homepage took me to the cast for the new The Hobbit movie that they've been trying to get going for years. And, if I am recalling correctly, Kili and Fili are two Elf brothers or cousins or something (I only made it halfway through the book, but I did watch the animated movie). My completely and hearty approval for the choices of those two actors!!!! Holy hotness! I am so very, very excited to see this movie now, even more excited than I was before, because I can now look forward to seeing those two actors. I feel like I'm in high school again. *Breathy, girlish sigh*

Onto other news . . . for Halloween I want to be Tarrant Hightop, the Mad Hatter that Johnny Depp (*swoons*) played in Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland. Well, there were and still are a few problems with that plan: I had NONE of the costume. Like, seriously, none. Not the hat, bowtie, shirt, coat, pants, socks, shoes, hair, the white face makeup, NONE OF IT! Well, after spending my $20 gift card at JoAnn's and taking a sneaky and not quite approved trip to Walmart, I got the fabric and pattern for the coat! I know, it would be 1000 times easier to buy the thing, except, the coat I want, a frock coat, is upwards of at least $50 online. I don't have that kind of cash, but I have exciting news on the matter . . . I made the coat! And it was surprisingly easy, once I quit being stupid and sewing the pieces together wrong. I made it out of brown costume satin (but turned the other way, so it was shiny side in), stretchy brown velour/velvet stuff for the collar and cuffs, and I even did lining, fell free to be impressed. I am so proud of myself! The only things I have left to do it hand sew a bit of trim on, and slip stitch the lining in place at the bottom and waist. I wore it out to lunch with one of my best buds today, and she said it was awesome, and I wore it to work too, and they were all suitably impressed. And I felt all sorts of awesome, wearing my Mad Hatter/Pirate coat. It makes me all sorts of warm and gooey inside. Oh, and I bought the white face makeup for my costume, and I already had the other makeup needed. So now I just need . . . all the other stuff. I can borrow the crazy socks from my sister in law, and the pink shirt should be easy, and lacy cuffs should be easy. And hopefully the fingerless gloves. I need to go to DI. They have everything there.

In other news, I finally read my stack of Dr. Seuss books I got from the library! I've had them for at least 2 weeks, and I finally squeezed in some personal time to read them. I read The Sleep Book last week and had the funnest Kid Moment. My dad used to read us that book all the time when we were little, and you have never heard Dr. Seuss until you've heard it read by my dad. He was about 17 different kinds of amazing. He could read it so fast, and he never messed up, and when I was reading it last week I could just hear his voice while I read it. It was the coolest thing ever. That is still my very favorite Dr. Seuss book, and I just read Oh The Places You'll Go for the first time, and that contends for second place next to Scrambled Eggs Super. I love Dr. Seuss. Brilliant, brilliant, genius man.

Ok, I may be done yammering on for now, and it's almost time to get my two year old out of the tub (she saw one of those Pillow Pets for the first time the other day . . . she latched onto the unicorn, gave it a HUGE hug, and didn't let go til we got to the checkout. Now we know what to get her for her birthday . . . ) and put her to bed. So, bonsoir everyone, have a lovely night!