Holiday Season

It really makes me sad when I write a post that doesn't include a picture.  But not so sad that I don't write at all (as evidenced by my last four posts).  Let's be honest, if I enforced that kind of restriction on myself you'd see even less of me here.

So here you go - a photo of a book I bought on Halloween!

This my friends, is a "Thanksgiving Book."  A Thanksgiving Book, because it is about the man who created the balloons for the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade.

Jared picked me up from downtown that day because we were headed straight to Sara's and when I got in the car he said "So....just standing there on the street....reading a children's book?"  and I said "That's what makes me awesome!!"

Also awesome = this book. I LOVE having seasonally appropriate children's books out on my coffee table, but have always lacked a Thanksgiving representative because - as I'm sure you can imagine - most of the Thanksgiving books out there are stupid.

But I'm not here to talk about books (...tricked you with that picture didn't I?)

I'm here to talk about decorating for Christmas...which may start as early as next weekend.  As in, before Thanksgiving. *gasp*

This holiday season is all screwy timing wise.

I know that technically there are the same number of days until Christmas as there always are, because Christmas doesn't move, but with silly Thanksgiving moving, and being extremely late, it's thrown everything off.

It's moved my vacation with my mom later in the month, it's moved my Christmas party later (and to a weekday - what?!), it's reduced the number of full weekends in December before Christmas because the first day of December is on the Sunday of the weekend after Thanksgiving.  See? All messed up.

I went into last December convinced it was going to be awful, and in an attempt to make it #NotAwful, I packed it full with every single activity possible.  I'm more positive about this December, but I'm sure it will be just as busy, so I'm trying to reduce stress by moving as much prep into early November as I can.

Of course, in order to be ready to decorate, I need to finish cleaning my apartment first.  I made massive strides this past week.  My living room is "put back together" for the first time since March  - it's really quite amazing.  I wish I could keep up that momentum, but instead I'll use a hashtag that Beth created this weekend....

#ButCouch


In other news:

• Online shopping could eventually destroy me.  Instead of being that crazy old person ordering everything from QVC and HSN, I will be the crazy old person who loses everything to Amazon.
• I turned on the heat today for the first time this fall.
• Despite this past week trying to kill me, it was full of some awesome things like Gena coming to visit, and my episode of The Big Bang Theory airing...and some packages arriving...of things I ordered online.
• The ceiling of the parking structure is leaking...again.  It's a miracle my building is still standing.
• North Dakota photos have been posted to Facebook, so that trip happened.  Still on deck - New York, Tim and Emily's Wedding, Florida, and Chicago. (Maybe I'll post Chicago photos on the 3 year anniversary of that trip...)
• It was a #TeamSatrina weekend, complete with a rowing class, running, errands, and an awesome Garfunkel and Oates concert - Sara thinks we should be them next year for Halloween, which could be really funny.  I just need to find a way to be 4 inches shorter and 100 pounds lighter by next Halloween.  #WeTotesGotThis