It's starting!

Yikes, Christmas is three days away! In Walgreen's today, I was a little surprised to hear a young boy repeating this over and over to himself: "Christmas is in three days, yep, Christmas in three days." My first thought was, "This kid is a little too excited; Christmas isn't until next week." Then I realized it is next week! Yay! I'm so excited to get to see so much of our family this week! I'm getting up at the crack tomorrow to try to beat the Wal-Mart crowds and so that Claire can stay home with Daddy before he leaves for work.

Bad news, folks. You knew it would happen: Claire got my cold. I'm sure many of you moms know this as well, but NONE of those children's cold and cough meds can be taken by kids under six! That's what the pharmacist at Walgreen's told me anyway. He said the FDA allows saline spray and baby Tylenol only. SO I'm hoping I can get our doc to call in some cold medicine she prescribed Claire probably a year ago without me having to take her to the dr. office in this bitter cold!

Speaking of which, I posted on Facebook and Twitter that we had a magical snow last week: it only happened in a very small area which included us! I'm not sure how far west and north it went, but the snow stopped about half a mile from our house and didn't fall in town at all! It was strange! Claire and I were both suffering from some major cabin fever at this point, me having been too sick to go out much the previous two days, so we bundled up and went outside to run around a little. This wasn't technically Claire's first snow; we had some some pretty deep snow this March , but Claire couldn't really enjoy it(Strange to think that then, snow made for nothing but stress for me!). This time, she said snow, which sounded just like "no," clapped her hands in delight, and ran around the yard. Unfortunately, I still don't have any gloves for her, so we didn't stay out very long.


I finished my Christmas shopping Friday with my sister! Yay! I'm so glad I don't have to face the crowds in Sherman this week. The area where we do most of our shopping is poorly designed and even on a typical Saturday, has terrible traffic jams around the exit ramp and in the parking lots. Makes it hard to be merry and bright!

Quick list of things I'm excited about this week:

1. Claire's first Christmas to kind of know what's going on! We have three or four Christmas books, a couple stuffed Santa Clauses, and of course, the ill-fated meeting with jolly old Saint Nick himself in the mall (we got one of those hilarious kid-crying-in-Santa's lap pics!). We opened our gifts from Paul and Diane today, and she was thrilled, dancing and bouncing and laughing like crazy!
   
2. Seeing The Tale of Despereaux with Mom, Tyler, and maybe Claire.
   
3. Making lots of sweet treats, including strawberry pretzel salad, chocolate-and-caramel drizzled potato chips, french toast casserole, and peanut butter cup cheesecake. (I don't get so excited about broccoli cheese casserole.)
4. Christmas Eve at Dad's house with the sibs and Grandma: For the people on my list who have everything: pictures of their darling granddaughter!
   
5. Christmas morning at Mom's house: Last year, it was a marathon of Rock Band in our pj's. We'll see what this year holds.
   
6. Friday night with the Mauck sibs and fams: Cutting down on the usual mountain of gifts with Paul and Diane giving each son's family their gifts separately. With all of us watching each person open each gift, that one can go way past the kids' bedtimes!
   
7. Saturday with Diane's extended fam AND my mom's extended fam (Yep, they're on the same day!). I just hope we're able to get in some quality time with the Dallas and Mississippi-based branch of our family without being despised by all the children at the Pannells by holding up their gift distribution!
   

I doubt I post again before Christmas, so I hope all you lovely readers have a holiday filled with comfort and joy!