This year it's late

The holidays are going to be weird this year. Everything is kind of late. My folks won't be coming into town until Christmas eve and with Tim's family coming after that, it's a big snowball from there. Which is turning out to feel really weird for me because Christmas, for me, usually comes early. My folks usually come the second weekend in December and the festivities start then. If they're not staying with me, it's an endless stream of dinner parties and other engagements. For the past several years I've conditioned myself to get all my shopping done by December 10th or I'm sunk.

That means that this year, it's perfectly normal for me to be pouring over my list and ordering things on line right now. Opting for cheap shipping means that anything I order now will come the week of Thanksgiving. Give me a week to get it wrapped and I've just made it by the skin of my teeth.

But I've got almost two extra weeks this year so I feel kind of silly planning things now. I'm a tad worried that things are going to get dusty while we wait for the parties to start, and I'm sure that come December 15th, I'm going to be very impatient for eggnog and hoo-ha.

The temptation is to fill it up with other crap -- the stuff I never have time for. Lots of cookie baking and parties with friends. But I know that if I do that, by the time Tim's grandma arrives on January 19th, I'll be a world class scrooge.

Best to wait.