Christmas Prep.

The weekend before Christmas. Always a busy one as we finish up our prep for the holidays. Yesterday, I worked, counselling some grieving kids and families. Such a difficult time of year when someone they love won't be home. Lots of tears, some memories and laughter. I feel blessed to work with these vulnerable souls and listen to their stories. I hope the short time they each spent with me yesterday will get them through the holidays. Holding each in my heart today.

After counselling, my dh and dd picked me up and we headed to the mall to pick up come clothes I had ordered the other day online. Amazing sale! I ended up with $340 worth of items but paid just $12. I know that online shopping has become a topic of conversation but we do a combination of both. And with this particular store, I can order, but still have to pick up in store. I can then try on the clothes there and return any on the spot if I wish (I take them home to try on ~ much more comfortable for me). But the staff tells us they love this because it frees them up for the customers in store and yet we still have a relationship with them. They know us quite well now, by first name and joked with my husband when he popped in earlier in the day to pick up his order. Half of our gifts we did order online, mainly because they weren't available close by (our hamlet doesn't have all the big box stores) and the other half were bought from local vendors. A nice combination and definitely more convenient for us out here. Shopping is done. Now we wrap.

After the clothing store, we popped in to the book store to pick up some items for our bestie, who is coming over on Boxing Day and for our neighbors kids, who we'll see over the holidays as we have them for dinner each year. We wandered for a bit, find a few more small items for stockings and then we trekked down the mall towards the grocery store. Dreaded this! We were pretty sure it was going to be a bit of a zoo. But we really didn't want to buy groceries next week. We wanted to be done and home.

So it was quite the surprise to walk in and see a very quiet store. Just like finding out parking spot (we thought we'd drive around and around) on our first try, right by the doors, we were taken back by the ease that this trip ended up being. Took us about an hour to find all the items we had on our list, then we walked over to the check out and there was no one in front of us. Almost weird! But great for us. Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, off we went to load up the car and head home. It was still snowing and the drive was lovely, knowing we're done and ready to relax.

Put our items away, had dinner, watched the hockey game (yeah, we won!), then SNL, and finally off to sleep. We were tired and just woke up a while ago (it's almost 10:30 a.m. here). Today, we'll finish up organizing the garage, so it's neat and tidy. Should only take an hour or so. Then in for showers, a bit of lunch, and the rest of the day I want to hang garland, hang the cards we're received, set the dining room table for Christmas Dinner and if there is still some energy left over, do some more baking. We have a very blue sky, so welcome after days of gloomy clouds and snow. I might trek out to my potting shed, pictured above, to hang a Christmas wreath on the door. Tonight we want to put our feet up and watch a movie or two. Tomorrow, likely wrapping will be on the agenda, if it doesn't happen today. I have an eye appointment at 1:00 p.m., so we do have to go in to town. But not for long. Appointment, car wash, home. We bought enough food that hopefully we won't have to go anywhere for the rest of the week. We will be hosting at least 2 dinners beyond our family dinner, so we might need some fresh items by then. We'll see. Hoping to just stay home.

How are your Christmas plans coming along?

Do you hope to stay home and just relax too?

~ Chy