Christmas Coming Soon...

It's been such a busy month!
I've been keeping up with most of my obligations, but juuuust keeping my nose above the waterline, so to speak.
T is in childcare for 2 days this week (the school is out for winter break for 2 weeks), and 2 days next week. He complained about going, but at the end of the day yesterday he was a happy boy. Apparently the 5 year old that bugs him wasn't there. And he gleefully gave me some ornaments made of paper and glitter and popsicle sticks that he'd made just for me. I love being the receiver of these priceless works of art.
For the holiday: I've bought the gifts I needed to do, helped out my mom with her Santa shopping (while trying to remind her most of us are adults and really don't NEED gifts). She just can't be reigned in. It's a time of year she revels in and even though she had done ZERO shopping until last week (due to her car being out for nearly a month) she still managed to get too many things for each of us. Some of my siblings, although fully grown, are still quite immature in their expectations on what "Santa" should bring. Always will be, I expect. Especially when Mom keeps doing it up the way she does, every year.
I work all week this week, except for Christmas. Today, after work, I have to jam to get T from daycare, zip home, bake brownies, divide 'em up and make pretty plates for a few of my neighbors (excluding the jerk across the street--although I thought about overcoming my anger and include them. But... No. Not doing it.) Then bringing all the gifts I wrapped to my parents and hiding them until Santa will be arriving, while keeping some behind around our tree to be found when we arrive back home. We'll be staying the night at my parents, like we usually do. The tradition that has evolved is that we find a few more gifts that Santa has left at our home under the tree and open it up on the morning of the 25th.
Then, the 26th is Mom's birthday and we have plans to take her out with a train trip to SF and see the holiday lights and bustle there. We've done that the last 5 or so years and she loves it. Dad has never come. We kind of don't invite him, although we actually have made it possible a few times for him to come too, but he declines (and Mom is quite tickled about that--it ends up being a stressful day if Dad comes. He's just a stress-tab, more and more as he ages.) Mom needs some peace (and that usually includes time away from Dad) and we try to give her that on her birthday. And a cream puff. GOT to have a cream puff from Beard Papa's. Man! If you have the chance to try one--get the eclair with vanilla custard. Yum-my!
The Playhouse in the backyard is finally finished! The slug came by a few days ago (unannounced, out the blue after a long hiatus) and finished up. He called me as I was waiting for another call, so I cut him short. He called again yesterday and left a message about how I was supposed to do a "walk through and then pay him, hopefully before the holiday." Well, I just don't feel like being in any kind of hurry--given he took SIX MONTHS to do a 2-3 week job. I have NO idea how much money he'll want, but I don't' think it should be much. I've already paid him quite a sum. We shall see...once I get around to speaking to him.
The rest of the backyard is a muddy mess. I won't be able to get the tether ball pole up by the end of the year. It's just too wet and yucky. But Dad did make a nice 9 x 12 foot planter box, so I can start shoveling dirt into it and get some things going. But the rain and mud make it impossible right now. It will happen by Spring or before, I hope.
My computer is on its last legs. I got a message from it recently that said there was very little space on the virtual memory or something like that. That makes me nervous. So I don't want to upload anything to upset the whole thing. I need to make CDs of all the information I have stored and all the pictures (I've just put all my pictures on Shutterfly, in case some virus attacked my files or something horrible like that) but I really should make my own CDs for safe storage and access. Speaking of Shutterfly...those photo books I created for my nieces turned out SO nice. I'm quite proud of them. I hope my nieces like them too. While I was at it, I made a nice calender featuring my favorite subject: T. I called it: T Being Five and Six Years Old. I made a copy for us, my parents and my cousin in Holland (who has always had a special bond with me). I feel quite confident now with my new skills (and the countless hours I spent on those books!) and may offer up my time and energy to create a yearbook for T's first grade class. One of the parents made one for the kinder year and it's one of T's favorite books to look through. If someone doesn't come up with the idea before I offer, I'm definitely going to do it. The class has a yahoo group and so far parents have been posting their pictures up of the field trips and various events at school. It should be easy with all that material compiled in one place.
I'll be shopping for a new computer in the new year. Probably another PC, since that's all I know. I hear Macs are user friendly, but I'm chicken to step out of my PC comfort zone.
I hope you all have had/will have a lovely Christmukkah!
God Bless you all.