For as long as I remember, this has been of my favorite secular Christmas songs. Kind of ironic when you think about it, as that song has more meaning now than it did way back then. Don't take that the wrong way... the holiday is, in fact, a holiday, and nobody I work with would ever expect anyone to work that day, and we do our best to make sure that we're home in plenty of time to avoid any of Mother Nature's surprises. The thing is, Christmas isn't just December 25th, and for some reason (well, actually really good reasons, but I know I'm a tax geek and won't bore everyone with the reason) the month of December is always a hectic one, both at work and at home.
As I've blogged in the past, decorating is a big part of helping me to prepare to celebrate Christ's birth. This year I started on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, and had everything decorated by Saturday; and everything cleaned up on Sunday afternoon (with the help, of course, of my family of elves...well, maybe that's one elf, and a reindeer, and a super brother who does almost everything this big sister asks him to do).
The week before last I actually worked from home, so I started to mix up double batches of cutout and gingerbread cookies at night...but life was so crazy I only got them mixed up...not cut out, baked, or decorated, before I had to pack my suitcase on Saturday night so I could catch a 10:00 flight on Sunday morning. So, I wrapped up the dough, put them in airtight bags and tossed them in the freezer.
My flight landed a little before 5:00 on Thursday night and I had to high tail it home in time to meet the family and head out to the Straight No Chaser concert at Kohler (if you've never seen them, search for them on YouTube, they're a fantastic group). Side note: I first learned about them about 5 years ago, on our firm's intranet site, as one of the founders used to work in our New York office, and I sent a link to my brother because I thought they were really good. 12 months later, John sends ME a link of this group that "he" "discovered" on YouTube. Great, thanks little brother, nice to know you pay attention to the emails I send... When I got home at about 11:00 I pulled the cookie dough out of the freezer and tossed it in the fridge. Now, mind you, I was at a conference for work last week, and had the opportunity to go on the Harry Potter ride that was FREAKING AWESOME. It was one of these "visual" rides, though, and I think I should have skipped the second time on the ride, as I'm pretty sure that was the cause of the headache that I had on Thursday, and Friday (which was actually the worst - full blown migraine), and part of Saturday. Needless to say, Friday wasn't a day for baking.
Saturday morning I started to roll out the dough and cut out angels, stars, snowflakes, snowmen, gloves, mittens, candy canes, bells and Christmas trees. I think I made about 7 dozen sugar cookie cutouts before we headed out to Christmas Carol with our church's intergenerational group. While a part of me would have preferred to stay home, I had a great time. We went to the local Assisted Living facility and the local apartment complex where my kindergarten Sunday School teacher lives, as well as caroling by some of our congregation members. We've done this for a few years now, but this year one of our members, who graciously stepped in to coordinate the event - because I was stretched a bit thin - was able to get a trailer. She and her awesome fiance even decorated it with lights, borrowed hay bales and had blankest on the trailer. We traveled through town in style, and I know we helped to brighten the holidays for some. When we were done, we returned to church and had chili (special thanks to my dad and also my former 4-H leader for staying behind to make sure the chili was warm when we got back).
When I got back home, I cut out and baked about 3 dozen gingerbread men and houses, sealed up all of the cookies in airtight bags, and I was finished for another weekend.
Sunday was a busy day at church (new member joining, choir singing and announcements that appeared to go on forever), and we got out late. I rushed home to get ready for the Christmas party for my dad's side of the family, finished the deviled eggs for my dish to pass, grabbed lunch by Mom and Dad and headed on out to the local town fire hall. I'll blog more about our gathering in the future, but our group has grown from the 7 boys my grandparents raised, and the tag along known as my dad who joined them in his teen years. This year, there were 71 of us at the hall...and that's not the full group!!!
When I got home last night, it was time to pick up a little (and by that, I mean a little bit - I owe my cleaning lady BIG time for this week) pack the suitcase, and head of to bed before another busy work week.
This coming weekend I still need to: Decorate the cookies I've already made and finish up the rest (pistachio drop cookies, peanut butter kisses, chocolate covered pretzels and chocolate peanut clusters). Saturday night is the neighborhood round robin, so I think Sunday is going to be when I start my Christmas shopping (see last year's blog - at least I'm not waiting until the 23rd this year).
Yes, it's crazy, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I love Christmas, and no matter how busy I am, I will find time to decorate, time to bake and time to wrap gifts (OK, time to watch my mom wrap the gifts I bought for everyone but her), time to go Christmas caroling, time to spend with family and friends. Life's too short to not enjoy these things. That is all part of being "home" for Christmas...
In case I don't get a chance to blog again before the holidays arrive, I wish each of you a Merry Christmas and a blessed 2013!
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