Pre-Christmas Madness

Crunch time.

I'm not kidding. The monthly bills are due. The fridge is embarrassingly empty. I haven't had a free moment to food shop. We're living on Kraft Mac & Cheese. But after some furious penmanship, the Christmas cards are done, the extra cards ready and waiting for those "oopsies" that I forgot to send the first time 'round. (You know you do it too-don't even try to say you don't!)

I stress the holidays a bit too much,-either I go way too far, or not enough. This year, I fear, may be one of those overboard years. If you don't know why, let me give you a hint; he's about 20 pounds, smells like bananas, and only says "ta-ta-tah!"

Not only having LBB to shop for, but the holidays are heaven to me. If you have met me, you might know that I am 'jubilant' and 'quirky', and that's according to the people who like me...so during Christmas I am in my prime. Around that time its permissible to sing out loud, even if its limited to holiday tunes, splurge on small wind-up toys that hop and flip, wear seasonal themed sweaters or in my case, envy the people who daringly do, and drink syrupy sweet eggnog drinks. I dance around the house in my pjs at noon. I sing along to Mariah's "All I Want for Christmas is You" at the top of my lungs. I bake biscotti in the hundreds, and experiment with different flavors (pumpkin was NOT good) and dipping in all kinds of chocolate. And baking more biscotti. Why, I do not know. Probably because its hard to get biscotti wrong. And it sounds fancy.

So its only the 3rd, and already I'm embracing my inner elf. Are you?