December 21, 2008

So it's four days 'til Christmas and I'm not ready. I was going to wait until Thursday to leave to stay with my family but have moved up my departure to Wednesday morning. We're playing a joke on my brothers on Christmas Day and I want to be there to see Ben's reaction. I won't be there when Ian arrives because I'm going to my grandmother's for breakfast with my father's side of the family.

With my departure being moved up, I have that much less time to get everything together. Tonight I finished addressing my Christmas cards for the CSE card exchange. Unfortunately money is too tight to send cards to my friends who weren't in the exchange. If that includes you, please know I'm sending you best wishes for a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Am I the only one who hasn't wrapped anything yet? Yep, you read right: I haven't even started wrapping gifts. Actually, I haven't even gotten them all together yet. I still have gifts scattered around the house. I don't have to worry about Wes finding anything because he's already in Florida to spend Christmas with friends.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to get the truck cleaned out so I can put the back seats down. I've found through experience that Kasey settles down better on long trips if she's directly behind the front seats. If I leave the back seats up and put her in the "way back" she spends the entire trip sitting with her head resting on the back of the seats, watching to make sure I don't leave her. If the back seats are down and I put all my stuff in the cargo area by the back door and leave room for her behind the front seats she will lay down and relax. Since we're going to be at Mom's for a week I want this to be as stress-free as possible for her.

Don't worry about Chet and Piper, though. Yes, they'll be home for a week without me, but my neighbors are excellent house sitters. I have the benefit of having life-long neighbors on one side and they keep an eye on the house anyway because they know Wes isn't here. Chet and Piper will probably take over the house while we're gone, but they won't have anything to get into at least.

Still on my to-do list is to go to the Muddy Paw Wash and get Kasey's brush they didn't give back to me when she was groomed last, wrap all the gifts, clean out the truck, pack for both me and Kasey, get the truck loaded with everything that's going with us, clean out the refrigerator.

Oh! Did I mention that I have to do all of this tomorrow?! I have dialysis on Tuesday (holiday schedule) so tomorrow is it. My plan is to wake up on Wednesday, put my laptop, purse, and Kasey in the truck, and head to Mom's. I'll let you know how it goes.

Yeah, and my brother Ben is coming for lunch tomorrow. He'll be here at 3pm to share spaghetti with me. It's already made so it just has to be heated. Actually, I mis-spoke. I made Angel Hair pasta, not spaghetti, and I made a meat sauce using Barilla Roasted Garlic & Mushroom pasta sauce. I don't like tomatoes, but I love Barilla's sauces.

I'm sure I've neglected to mention some of the things still left to do, but I'm sure I'll get everything done. If worst comes to worst I'll just leave later on Wednesday. There's no set time I have to be at Mom's.

I opened Day 21's gift and found the 6th and last movie in the Love Comes Softly series. The DVD of Love's Unfolding Dream completes my set! Thank you Amy!!

This site has lots of different crafts, not just cross stitch. I just couldn't resist Billy Bear! He's just too cute!
http://www.billybear4kids.com/holidays/christmas/crafts.htm

Go to Stitch Alley to see page after page of free designs:
http://stitchalley.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=4&zenid=76f1902406e5762e3a4468bed6679e07