You. Me. Us.: Tis the Season....

I love the Christmas season. I love to look at all the lights and to watch all of the celebrations. I love the spirit of the holiday and I LOVE seeing my kids' faces as they open gifts.

Having said all the things I love, I DON'T love the stress. Every single year I spend a freaking month thinking "oh...I can do that later, I still have some time." Then all of sudden it's Christmas eve and I'm running to the stores with all the other poor schmucks who either let time get away from them or were just too lazy to shop earlier.

As much as I love giving gifts...and I know this isn't going to make sense...I usually hate shopping. It sounds crazy I know, but unless I know with 100% absolute certainty that I am getting the perfect gift for someone, then I will spend forever worrying that it's not the right thing. Ugh...being the ...ahem... adult that I am, I know that gift giving and getting isn't the real reason for the season. I also know that it's the thought that counts. But seriously...have you ever watched a 10 or 12 year old open a gift and then look at you like "what the hell am I going to do with this?!" Yeah...tell them "it's the thought that counts" and see how much they love you from now on. ;)

Well, this year is proving no different than any other year. Maybe even worse. It's now less than a week before Christmas, and do I have still shopping to do? You betcha.

Sigh.

Crap.

Oh well. While I spend the rest of my free time from now until the 25th wondering the aisles of department stores everywhere, talking to myself and drooling, you can view some photos of recent activities.

Last Friday, our homeschool group went caroling at a nursing home. Our group has been visiting them every year for quite some time. It's always nice to go and to know that we hopefully brought some cheer to everyone, even if only for a few minutes. This is a group shot. Notice the beautiful banner...we worked on that with the kids and it was fun. Each child traced and cut out some handprints for the adults to glue to the banner. I think it turned out really great!

Funny story about a couple of the boys...Braed was wearing a springy type santa hat...hard to describe other than...well...its springy. Instead of a typical hat, it has the bottom of a normal hat, but has a spring coil on top with a white puff ball on the end. When you move your head, the spring bounces. Anyway...I looked down during some of the songs to find Braed bouncing along with the song...too cute. I thought that was funny...and it was...but I almost choked when I looked down and saw Zman (down front with the green antlers). He has bells on his little antlers and during the song "Jingle Bells" I actually hear bells. That's when I looked down and saw him bouncing his head and "jingling" in time with the song! It was SO funny!

Here is a shot of my boys with the "B" boys...the 4 of them are just something else... :o)

On to other happenings...

This past Monday, our Cub Scout pack had it's last meeting of 2008. Many of the boys got recognized for earning A LOT of beltloops! It's really cool to know that they are all working hard. Here is a group shot of everyone singing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" at the end of the meeting:

It was a good night..and to be perfectly honest, I am looking forward to a break over the next couple of weeks!

That's all that's been going on I think. This weekend we start our Christmas celebrations by going to my sister-in-laws to have dinner and exchange gifts with her family on Saturday. Then Sunday we are doing the same with my parents and my brother and his family. It will be busy, but fun. Next week will be just as busy. I think we are heading to the B's on Monday to do some crafts with Tracy's sister-in-law. (YAY!) Then we will have Christmas with my grandparents on Christmas Eve followed by waiting, not so patiently, for the big guy to arrive. :o) Christmas day, hopefully, after we have opened everything from Santa, we are again heading to the B's for our family dinner with them. It will be a good time and will be a great end to our week of Christmas gatherings!

Just as an added bonus to this post, here is a picture of my boys and Teagan...aren't they just too cute for words?? ;)