It’s over before it even begins

I just put a long, detailed note in my Google calendar for  next September, reminding me to buy all of the really annoying things, that I always leave until the last minute, ahead of time. Things like stocking stuffers, gift cards for teachers, extra wrapping supplies, stuff to package Christmas goodies, tape, and a metric ton of baking supplies. Having those things on hand come December, without adding them to our December budget, makes me giddy for the possibilities of next Christmas.

Still, I’ll probably be scrambling around the week before Christmas, telling myself that I have plenty of time. And sure, I do have plenty of time. It will all get done. I have exactly one more shopping trip to make, and all of the things I need are located in the same area, I just need to load the kids in the car and go. The only things that have been wrapped are the things that have already been delivered, and the amount of wrapping seems insurmountable, when of course it isn’t really. I really enjoy shopping and giving, and I really, really loathe wrapping.

It’s just there’s always stuff to get done this week, and we have an activity every day, so it’s not as if I can just send my husband off with the kids for the day and get things done in the house. Fortunately, we don’t host anyone at our house for Christmas, so I don’t have to plan a menu or clean my house. I just have to wrap, and I don’t want to. I’m stuck in an in between place where it feels like it should be all Christmas, all the time, and yet life goes on. Lunches and dinners need to be made, but alongside my (super delicious) Trader Joe’s chicken salad, I threw in a few gingerbread men kits (99 cents!)

Also, it’s right about this time that I start to feel a little blue because it’s all coming to an end. We spend Christmas Eve with my family now and I love that most of all, because it’s still the eve of Christmas, there’s still the promise of more to come. On Christmas day it just feels like a downhill race of cookie crumbs and wrapping paper bits and every Christmas song on the radio feels like it’s trying a bit too hard. Isn’t that depressing? And yet, that’s the way I feel every year. I love the anticipation, and the planning, and the shopping (but not the wrapping of course) but when it all comes together I’m just so sad that it’s over, and we have to wait another eleven months to begin again.

Then again, my 2012 Start in September plan allows me to think Christmas while Fall is just beginning, so I suppose it’s only nine more months, which is a much more bearable prospect.