Twas the week before Christmas . . .

And I have about 3/4ths of everything done and not sure when I'll get the rest . . .

The great news? Skyler and Sarah WILL be coming to spend Christmas with us, hooray! Sarah's parents and one of her brothers will also be with us. Invites are out to Piersons and Doolans for Christmas Eve but I don't have responses yet so I don't know how big (or small) our Christmas Eve dinner will be.

We are expecting S&S to show up either tomorrow or Monday at the latest. Then Nick should be flying in very late on Tuesday. I'm hoping we won't have to wait until Thursday to see him.

Today Martin and I had the great pleasure of babysitting Andrew. We took him to the mall today and had such a great time with him - he loved the little play area and the gelato we shared. I can never really get enough of him. I taught him "eskimo kisses" which he thought were highly amusing!

I'm trying to prepare my lesson for RS for tomorrow; it's hard to think about that when my mind is making lists of all the things I still need to do before Thursday. As much as I love my job and love working, I miss being a stay-at-home when this season rolls around. I miss hanging out in the house, baking, listening to carols, enjoying the tree. I think next year I will plan a few extra days off just to enjoy the season a bit more.

December already

How does it happen? December is upon us already, ho ho humbug.

Good news? I finished the last of my school work and while the official end of school isn't for another week, I personally am done, done, done. Group project turned in, class evaluations done - I'm on to bigger and better things until January.

Chelsea, Trenton, Natalie and one of her friends came over on Sunday and we got the tree up and the house decorated. I haven't even thought about Christmas shopping, or the Christmas letter. I guess it's time to get it started. I'm still very sad that Skyler and Sarah won't be here for Christmas. This is officially "our" year, and I'm concerned that we will never get Sarah on track with the rest of the family. I think there's a learning curve . . .

At least I can look forward to Jamie and Andrew getting out here next week and then Nick the week after that. And of course I can always count on Chelsea and Trenton for cheering me up :)

News: Martin has been called onto the High Council, and best of all, his responsibility is over the Young Single Adults' Ward which means both of us will get to visit our favorite ward on a regular basis!

Well, that's about all I have to say at the moment. I'm trying to change gears from school work to home-work. I have a quilt top I should work on and all that Christmas shopping to do. If I could, I would do all my shopping on line!