What's the Hurry?

When the boys were young, we used a Countdown to Christmas calendar. It had a pocket for each day that held a strip of paper with an activity that would help us get ready for Christmas. Even though I haven't used that calendar for many years, I still like the concept of spreading out the holiday activities, and try to do one or two things every day to make the season less hectic.

Today I was planning on leaving work by 12:30.  However, I got pressed into service in the Extended Day classroom until 2:30, and the time I was going to spend on Christmas chores evaporated.  To make matters worse, when I got home everything I picked up took twice as long as it should to complete, and by dinnertime I felt frazzled and completely behind schedule.

What rubbish!  Today's only December 2nd;  there's plenty of time to get things done.  I decided a nice way to counteract my frustration would be to slow down.  For dinner I made a pot of chili, and some macaroni to turn it into chili mac.  Tony brewed some decaf, and after dinner we sat, drank coffee, and talked about what was going on.  From my seat at the table I was able to look out the kitchen window and see the lights I'd strung on the deck, which made me smile:

After the kitchen was cleaned I sat on the couch, browsed through a few catalogs that came in today's mail, and made mental notes of things that might make good presents.  I'm ready to jump back into the thick of things tomorrow.