To Do List

You are hereby warned that I like to complain. There are only four more days until Christmas. I feel like this is the most prepared I've been at this point and yet I still feel like I need an extra week....at least. I think there is 2/3 of the wrapping yet to do. (It would have been 100% of it left had Jon not taking all the ruffians to the movie yesterday.) I haven't baked or created anything other than basic meals. The nativity still isn't on display. The pine garland I bought at Costco the weekend of Thanksgiving (that I was hoping to bring in the house to have that pine smell) is still rolled up and tied laying in the garage. The Christmas cards are sitting in the mailbox because I barely missed the mail carrier on Saturday morning(and didn't realize it until evening). The kids still need to bring gifts to their teachers and friends. The wished-for new stockings aren't, (and won't be) made. And last, but not least, we haven't gone to look at Christmas lights anywhere.

As most years go Jon's work has some deadline that needs to be met before he can take any time off during the holidays and works so much that by the time he does get time off he is sick and can't enjoy it. Luckily he isn't sick yet, but what having this oh-so-important deadline means is that he has been spending nearly 80 hours a week (during the normal 5 day work-week) plus some time on the weekend trying to meet the deadline for the last several weeks. Three out of the five days this last week he averaged going in to work around 7:30 a.m. and came home at 12:30a.m. Tuesday he came home at a normal time because he was so tired and Friday he came home around 10:30 p.m. He should be putting time in this weekend but apparently he just can't make himself since he is currently playing a video game. This means that he will be spending the majority of the day tomorrow working (and possibly Tues) even though he originally planned on having this whole week off. I was planning on him having the whole week off!

My kids are on the school track this year that gives them a break from Thanksgiving through the new year. That is about 6 weeks of four kids home all day, everyday, hardly any relief at night because they go to sleep so late and Jon isn't home to help me keep my sanity. I honestly don't know how single mothers do it! (I feel like a single mother the majority of the time but I know I don't have it nearly as bad as a truly single mother.) So the point of mentioning my kids being home is that there is that much less time that I've had to get ready for Christmas. There's only so much I can do with four kids by my side. It would be different if I could use that little zapper in the movie Men In Black and erase their memory of everything I just bought and where I hid it in the house!

I honestly thought that I would have been completely done with everything by last week (minus wrapping) and just enjoy the time with my kids (whether Jon was here or not) doing fun things. We still have a couple days though, and there are some plans in the works to go to Temple Square to look at the lights. I still want to do some baking even if it is only on Christmas Eve day. Jon said he wants to take the kids sledding and with the approaching storms there will be plenty of snow to do so, which would give me some more wrapping time. So I still have hope for a peaceful and relaxing Christmas eve and day and the plus side of it is that Jon has soooo many hours in that he doesn't have to use any of his vacation time AND he'll still have some overtime hours to cover him for the next two weeks.

Oh, and one thing I managed to get Jon to do on a Saturday a couple weeks ago is put lights on the house for the first time ever....and possibly the last! :) Here is some proof:
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