A Mommy Story

This season started out strong for us. With Hanukkah beginning at Thanksgiving this year, we were into holiday shopping early. We put the Christmas tree up the day after Thanksgiving, like we do every year, and had most of the indoor decorations up at that time, too.

Then it snowed. And we weren’t super excited about trying to get the outdoor decorations in place in the snow. After buying the Hanukkah gifts, we also let a lot of the remaining gift shopping slide, too.

And now? We’re just over a week away from Christmas and SURPRISE! There’s still a LOT that needs to be done! So I’m back to frantically making gift lists, clearing out clutter from the downstairs in prep for family visiting next week, and deciding if I want to try my hand at making any treats for visitors to snack on.

It also occurred to me a few days ago that I didn’t order any holiday cards. It’s now the 17th…and I’m too much of a cheapskate to pay for express printing and shipping, so it’s likely too late for me to order cards. Besides, I’ll lose half a day browsing designs and trying to get the right design matched with the right photos, and then don’t even let me near the font choices, cause that’s at least another hour switching back and forth to find the right font to convey our warm wishes for a bright new year!

Holiday cards are usually hit or miss for us – some years we do them, some years we don’t. I’m kicking myself for not being better organized in doing them this year. After all, unlike most years, we had a fantastic photo of all of us to use! More than one, even!

There was this one:

Or possibly this one:

Or even these:

Yeah, the first trip to Disney World with the kids probably should have been the holiday card theme this year, but no one will be getting a card with these photos. Sorry!

Instead, I’m stealing an idea I saw on Facebook from Jen and I’m choosing to donate the money we would have spent on holiday cards to charity instead. In our case, it’ll be to PetPromise, the rescue group who helped us find our other much-loved family member, Cosmo.

So happy holidays, merry Christmas, and please forgive the lack of cards in the mail. The rescued pups and kitties at PetPromise really appreciate your understanding.