I'm in the home stretch now!

It's been a bit since I've posted, but I've been on a mission. I tried my best to relax after our really big Thanksgiving dinner (the one we had on the Sat. before) and just enjoy the two dinners I had on Thanksgiving Day (with Superman's family) and on Black Friday (with my Dad), and I did.  I didn't have to cook at all for the dinner Superman's mom invited us to, and I only had to cook up a batch of chicken and dumplings for my Dad, so both of the dinners were pretty low key, but then I set my sights on getting my Christmas shopping done early. I decided that I wanted to do my best this year to not be frenzied throughout December. I want to be able to slow things way down, focus on the truly important things, and spend a bunch of quality time with my family.  I was determined to get all my shopping done this week, and I've almost finished. I just need to buy some candy; a little for the girls' stockings and some for the gingerbread house (or whatever - last year it was a gingerbread train), and I also have to get a gift for my Dad. Then that's it - I'm done! I'm truly thankful for online shopping (I used this method for about 1/4 of my shopping this year), but it didn't save me from "The Mall" - ugh (wish I knew how to put that in some kind of Halloween type, creepy font). At least I don't have to do that again anytime soon. I plan on wrapping a few presents at a time for several days in order to get them all done and ready to go under the tree once we get one up. One of the things I'm looking forward to the most this year is joining in with the girls on the night they watch movies and string popcorn. I haven't done that with them in several years. I can't wait!