It's Xmas-ish

Due to the remodel going on at our house, I knew we weren't going to do much for Christmas decorations--if any at all. I wasn't sure if the plan was still to scrape all the texture from the ceiling, because if that was the case, it made no sense to get everything out. But, my girl wanted at least something so several weeks ago she put up our little 2 ft Christmas tree and put some beads on it. That was the extent of our decorations for awhile. But even I had to say it really didn't seem like enough, and felt like womp womp....SO, this past weekend we all decided we just needed to put our 10 ft tall christmas tree up. We drug it out from the garage in it's red bag, cleared out the space it normally sits in our living room, and got out the ladder to put on the lights. I said absolutely no to ornaments, but since my girl was in the boxes, she also found our stockings, the nativity set, a few christmas figurines, and even Peppermint our elf made a visit. We also hung on our TV entertainment center the cards we got in the mail (which we used to hang on the mantle of the fireplace we don't have anymore replaced with a plastic barrier going across the entire room). 

And NOW, it feels much better and more holiday-ish.

Today is already December 23 and Xmas Eve is tomorrow. I've been working on gift searching and buying for months--I still keep my spreadsheet of everyone and everything, which makes it so much easier to keep track of it all. AND,  I'm SO proud of myself that I was done shopping AND wrapping last Wednesday the 17th-a new record. I was always waiting until Xmas eve to wrap gifts and that just made it so stressful...so, I stopped doing it. And I again outsourced my sister's gift wrapping to my girl.

The holiday itself: we are off to a bumpy start....we decided to have my sister fly down here on the 23-27 using her miles. I tried to call her about plans on Sunday/ all day Monday (yesterday) but silence. Right before a trip is not the time. She finally texted back yesterday some garbled message and 'sick'....so I texted do we need to change or cancel the flight? and she texted back no. Then I got a text this morning that she of course missed her flight and would be arriving 3hours later...right during rush hour. I have lots of thoughts and feelings about this and I'm trying to manage my frustration, disappointment, and annoyance about it all feeling like, 'here we go again'.....I suspect it may not go well when I tell her I'll pay for an U ber to bring her here because it will take over 2 hours round trip to go get her now. I'm just going to take a deep breath and hope for the best. But, I don't even have a dinner planned yet so likely we will order x mas eve dinner from somewhere and just pick it up. It's not like I have a kitchen to cook in anyway.

My hope and intention over the holidays is to have some peace, minimal arguing between everyone since the kids--mostly my son--have ratcheted up already with the provoking, screaming, chasing, etc..and some good moments. I think that's doable.

Happy holidays to all.