I love Christmas. I love the smells, I love the colors, I love the music, I love the food. I don't love the inevitable weight gain, but hey, that's what sales on exercise equipment are for, right?

But I LOVE kids at Christmas. Here's a present my 5 year old wrapped for his sister by himself.



And the card that goes with it--which reads, "You will love this present. I love you."



I feel like these children are my presents. They are my loves, my laughter, sometimes my frustrations, my life. I love them.

I'm back!

My husband mocks me that I never have my scrapbox closed and looking pretty like this. I assure him it's because I'm always working on lots of very important things.

Between Thanksgiving and Christmas in my family we have two birthdays. So that's two friend parties, two family parties, shopping, baking, etc. etc. Add to that, this year we had a big family celebration this past weekend where my two sisters and their families (that would be eight children under the age of 11) stayed for the weekend, plus lunch for 70 on Saturday. Now add to that all the normal Christmas stuff--and you can maybe see why I feel like I'm stretched about as far as I can stretch.

I would really like to hear suggestions on how you balance all this Christmas stress. Isn't this supposed to be the season of Peace on Earth? I'm not feeling especially peaceful at the moment. And while I know with one part of my brain that the answer is to do less--to simplify, to let some things go--the other part of my brain is a raving lunatic for insisting it all be done. Every goodie not baked, every Christmas card not written is someone left out and I can't live with myself if I do that. So . . . how do you manage it? Seriously. I'll be in the kitchen while I wait, whipping up some more goodies.