Like many weekends, I got my sleep-schedule completely turned around and I was up till 3 a.m. last night. Needless to say, my brain isn’t quite working at full-capacity yet. So today’s update will be bullet-points…
I’m going home in five days. FIVE DAYS, ya’ll!- Did I mention that I’m driving home to Erie, Pennsylvania — otherwise known as the icy tundra? The land of LAKE EFFECT snow! Oh what fun. (That photo was taken looking off my mom’s back porch on 12/11.)
- I haven’t driven in snow since 2006. This could be interesting.
- I’m not looking forward to 11-hours of driving…
- But it’s worth it. I get to see my family and several old friends who are coming home for the holidays as well. Yay!
- I have a lot to do in the meantime. Car needs an oil change and to be cleaned out, I need to pack, etc. etc.
- My Christmas shopping is DONE. How’s yours coming along?
- My Christmas knitting, however, is still in-process. As usual, I bit off a bit too much. (But it wouldn’t be ME and wouldn’t be Christmas if I didn’t!)
Annnnd… now I shall return to caffeinateing my system. (Thank goodness for Starbucks!) Happy Monday!
That’s just a little over two weeks, ya’ll!
So, how’s your Christmas shopping coming along?
Remarkably, my Christmas shopping is all but done. I think, like a lot of other people this year, I’ve scaled back my shopping quite a bit. I also don’t have a lot of people to buy for, which makes it much easier.
I always seem to get a case of the bah-humbugs early in the season — ya know, when they start putting out Christmas decorations in the stores at Halloween time. While I realize that retailers’ motivation is to get us in the mood to Christmas-shop, it seems to have the opposite effect on me: when it’s thrown in my face so many weeks before I’m ready for it, I resist out of spite.
The Christmas spirit didn’t really hit me until this past Saturday. I’m not sure what finally triggered it, but I woke up with a hankering to gift shop. Unfortunately, it had to wait till Sunday because I was teaching a knitting class at my local yarn shop that day, and had a holiday party that evening.
Sunday afternoon I was on a mission, though! I was going to finish my Christmas shopping in one day, dang it! And you know what? I did! Aside from a couple gifts I’m still making at home and one gift that I can’t buy till I drive back to Pennsylvania (from a local chocolate shop in my hometown), I am done and it feels so good!
I spent Sunday night wrapping all the gifts I bought. I’d totally forgotten how much I enjoy wrapping packages. I think I might just have a little tiny bit of Martha Stewart in me, because I really get a ridiculous amount of enjoyment out of creasing the wrapping paper just-so and tying a perfect bow. (I’m sick, I know…)
Even more exciting, in eleven days I’ll be leaving Tennessee to go back to Pennsylvania for the holiday. I am so looking forward to my mom’s holiday cooking and being with my parents, grandparents, and all my friends who are also coming home for Christmas.
The not-so-fun part is that I decided I’m going to drive home, which means about 11 hours in the car by myself. Keep your fingers crossed for me that there aren’t any major snowstorms in Kentucky, Ohio, or western Pennsylvania the day I’m traveling! Though I have all-wheel-drive, this Yankee-girl has been in the South too many years and just isn’t so accustomed at driving in snow anymore!!
