Thursday, December 11, 2008

Out of Control Christmas

You know that saying "Too blessed to be stressed"? Who made that up? I want to meet the idiot who created this phrase and sock her in the teeth. Really hard. Twice. Then I will laugh and laugh. Merry Christmas.

I know I'm blessed. Tremendously. Yet I'm about to have my 19th Annual Christmas Conniption. I still have shopping to do. Cookies to bake. Cards and letters to send. Laundry to wash. People keep getting sick here. Everyone is just... well, gross. So.Much.Snot. Oh, the humanity. I want nothing to do with any of them. We've gone waaaaaaaay over our Christmas budget. As the world sinks deeper into a global financial crisis, I am spending money on "one more" %$#!* gift. I have this vague, icky feeling in the pit of my stomach that I've accidentally gone more overboard on spending for some kids than others, which I won't know for sure until I dig the stupid wastes of money gifts out of the closet and see exactly what I've bought and what I still need and since I can't find time to do this I can't finish the shopping. And, by the way, I want to go back to Toys R Us and Walmart one more time to deal with selfish shoppers and snotty, tired salespeople like I want to be covered in hot grease. And have I mentioned lately that I'm fat?

My, that was a mouthful. Let's all just take a deep, relaxing breath, shall we?

This was supposed to be The Year of Scaling Back. The year when we really concentrate on The True Meaning of Christmas. The year when all the commercialism and materialism gets kicked out of our lives, once and for all, as we focus on God's gift to us. Um... Yeah. Not so much.

Am I the only one who is so pathetically disorganized? Am I the only one who gets sucked into the hellish world of lists and gifts and buying "one more thing?" Am I the only mom who gets so caught up in trying to make Christmas a wonderful, memorable experience for my family that it winds up sucking for me? Am I the only one with my head eternally up my...

Anyhoo, it could be worse. I know that. It could be like last year (see the rest of the story here, here, and here ). I truly am blessed and I shouldn't complain. Christmas will come, whether I'm ready or not, and it will be wonderful. Snot, laundry, and all.

*On a totally unrelated note, I should warn you all that I'm getting ready to import all the posts and comments from my old blog over to this blog and delete the old one. I've noticed that a few readers still access this blog from the link on the old one. If that's you, you'll have to update your link. Also, if you use Google Reader or something similar, you're going to see a bunch of "new" posts from me. Just ignore them, unless you are so totally in love with my idiocy that you want to go back and reread my old posts. And who could blame you?

5 comments:

Laura L. said...

Oh yes, I hear you! You are not the only mom who goes through this. I have a hard time with getting it all done for Christmas too!
I loved how you said you were about to have your 19th Annual Christmas Conniption. OMG! I do this too. Every year. Some years are worse than others.
Monday was kind of a bad day. I didn't have the conniption, but just felt like crying for half the day. Thinking, "How, oh how will I get it all done, etc."
On top of it all I'm planning a birthday party this weekend.
Yeah, all 4 of us have had a cold too.
I'm right there with you and I feel your pain!

Anonymous said...

My goal is to dig all the gifts out of the closet and car trunks tonight so that I can make a list of what I have and for whom, and then Saturday I'm going to do any shopping that needs done to even things out ('cause Tank Boy? Right now is scoring big compared to the rest -- I think). Cookies and cards? I'll think about that tomorrow. After all, tomorrow is another day! *whimper*

Anonymous said...

oh gosh you are not alone. no baking, no cards, and the majority of the shopping still to go. Merry Christmas from one pathetically disorganized mom to another! love those Christmas program pics!

Shannon

Anonymous said...

No, you are most definitively NOT the only one. I am freaking out about the $$ for gifts for family members who probably won't even like/appreciate whatever I buy anyway... And my Christmas cards are still not mailed out, though I am getting closer. I just feel totally behind this year, like I need another week in the month of December or something.

Anonymous said...

I definitely have the "one more thing"-itis. What always gets it is the little ones who throw out "must have" gift ideas with no concept of time. And there always seems to be some gift idea I get at the last minute that I get obsessed with and it consumes me. Ugh.

For what it's worth, I'm the most ridiculously organized christmas person ever. I just put up the 12 days of christmas countdown list we do every year. ALL of the stuff on your list is on one of the 12 days (starts saturday). WHen you put one thing a day it doesn't feel or look or sound overwhelming at all. So try it! Just asign one of those goals a day for the next 13 days and it'll get done without feeling like you have to do it all at once.

Plus also no matter how organized I am, I always end up staying up until 3am wrapping gifts. What's up with that?