Progress

It's after 2:00 p.m. and I have not had a shower yet today.  I've been busy with the baby and in between her feedings and naps and her bath I've addressed the envelopes for the holiday photo cards & put the return address labels on them, wrapped and packeged the gifts that have to go into the mail, put a bow and some fresh holly & berries on the plain green wreath I bought and hung it on the door, cleaned up the kitchen from lunch, put away Jackson's laundry.  Doesn't sound like a big accomplishment, I know but the fact that I had the gifts for four people together and now packaged to mail, all my addresses in one place (ok 3 places but I knew where all the places were), the cards ordered and here, etc. is major for me because now I can focus on the loose ends and the little extras that make the holiday special this week instead of panicking and being a grinch..

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Now to grab a little "me" time and have a shower....Jeff took the older two and went out to get the Christmas tree.  We'll decorate it later, probably before and after dinner.  I'll put up some decorations around the house while Alex gets the majority of the ornaments on the tree.  After she goes to bed I usually rearrange them but she's a big help in getting them out of the boxes and onto the tree.  My shopping is substantially done but for the gift certificates I buy for the daycare ladies.  I have a shopping list for the Christmas dinner and I'll do that grocery shopping Thursday afternoon.  Tomorrow I will start wrapping the kids' things and if necessary come up with a list of things for Jeff to pick up this week when he's out.  He has the next two weeks off.  I have no extra time off because of that nice long maternity leave at the beginning of the year.  I'm going to take a week in January I think, to do whatever I feel like doing.  I would love to take the kids to PA for a few days to do some visiting.

Jackson and Kate have been incredibly cute together.  I took some great pics of the two of them last Saturday.  Yesterday, Jackson had on my straw gardening hat and was playing "Old McDonald" with his stuffed animals.  He'd hold one up and I was to sing the song and add whichever animal he was holding.  Of course I wished I had the video camera handy and didn't.  Note to self, pull it out and charge the battery so we'll have some video of the tree trimming.