Unheard Of

Today I purposely allowed nothing to go on my calendar so I could finish anything related to Christmas presents. Although I am notoriously a Christmas Cadet, that applies mostly to decorating and entertaining. The presents part of Christmas is my least favorite part.

Acts of service are my love language. I think we all have way to much stuff, which rules our lives. I don’t like taking care of stuff, unless it is a Christmas decorations, then the more stuff the merrier.

I love my family and do want to show them I love them, so I do buy Christmas presents, but the wrapping, etc is last on my to-do list. Usually I am wrapping on Dec. 24 and I hate that.

So this year I made a pledge to have it all done and dusted in the present department by today. I have bought presents all year. The problem is not the buying. The problem is the finding where I hid them, the taking stock of how much I have and for whom and the wrapping.

Last year I sprung a little surprise on my larger family and we had a Chinese Auction, some call it a Dirty Santa. So I bought a bunch of universal gifts and we had a great time stealing gifts from each other. My sister Janet loved this and suggested we do it again this year, but she and my sister Margaret would also contribute some gifts. This makes my life so much easier.

I set up a wrapping station in my big room where the tree is and it took less than three hours to completely gather everything and wrap. I somehow had in my mind that this would take all day, but with the paired down giving it was a cinch.

Since I had the wrapping put up, I took advantage of the table I was using and worked a Santa Puzzle Jan brought me. No guilt. I’m ready for Christmas, if you don’t count the food shopping and cooking. I couldn’t do that this early because I don’t have room in my freezer to keep anything anyway.

Carter flies in first thing tomorrow so all my time will be spent with her. This early prep is unheard of around here. I think I will make it the new normal.