Try to Stay Focused

It is so easy to lose focus during the Christmas season. I need to keep running to-do lists for each party, each food, each store, so that everything is done on time and well. I don't expect perfection, but do hope for the minimum of disasters, and try not to get aggravated when spouse maintains a normal even disposition despite the chaos within my head.

Just try to pay attention when you're doing the laundry by checking all pockets or you will realize that the 10 hour Molten Caramel lipstick by L'Oreal lasts far longer than 10 hours when the tube has gone through the washer and dryer painting everything in its path in a lovely shade of sparkly caramel. Half a bottle of Oxy Clean spray and two additional hot washes/warm rinses and spins in the dryer were surprisingly ineffectual.

For the past few years, spouse and I have not exchanged Christmas gifts, as we shop as we go through the year. This year we will be opening gifts en famille at daughter and her spouse's house, and I thought it would be nice if spouse and I had something from each other to open. Expecting spouse to trudge through store after store scratching his head, searching for the perfect gift for me seemed like cruel and unusual punishment, and not in the right spirit of the season. I suggested to spouse that we buy our own gifts, and then act surprised when we open them in front of the kids. Spouse was game. He wondered how much he should spend. I told him to buy whatever he wanted, since he was paying for it. (This was where I went wrong.) I said I was thinking of getting pajamas, and maybe a sweater. This is another example of why you need to pay attention when making a plan, because not all people think the same way. Spouse and I have always had communication issues but I forgot this in all the excitement of Christmas. I got myself those pajamas and that sweater, and I will wrap them up and put them under the tree. Spouse got himself a gift, too, but it's not going to fit under any Christmas tree. And while I am the only one that will fit into my pajamas and sweater, six people plus a baby's car seat will fit into spouse's gift to himself.

Do not get distracted by the holly jolliness of it all and be careful of what you say and what you do.