How ready are you? | Pad Patter 12.1

Other than turning my decorative calendar to December and buying new LED lights for outdoors, I haven't done a thing for Christmas. We just had our family Thanksgiving on Saturday! I don't sweat getting things done early. Our tree stays up until January 6 so it's not a big deal to get it up right away. My daughter is hosting Christmas Day at her house so I don't have to do anything except bring cookies and maybe the wine. Most of the shopping will be done via Amazon with Prime delivery. I plan to enjoy Christmas experiences this month rather than stress.

 

DH has been totally in the Christmas spirit, so much more than me. On the day after Thanksgiving, he got out the wreath & the poinsettia that decorate the outdoor entrance. He also dragged out the wrapping paper & ribbons, started wrapping a few gifts. (Amazon is my friend.) We have an understanding, I box the gifts with tissue paper, he wraps, I decorate with bows & ribbons & tags. He also dragged out Home Alone and Home Alone 2, so we watched those over the weekend. And while he was wrapping, we had on A Perfect Christmas (Holly's Holiday) on the TV yesterday. We have a small tree, and it is out year round, swapping out decorations throughout the year. We currently have it decorated with wooden leaf ornies and leaf garland, so definitely an autumn theme still...

As for me, I'm still trying to recover from having Thanksgiving over at our place. LOL!

 

Our tree is up and decorated. All but one little gift are purchased. Waiting on the rest of the deliveries to get here. Hoping to wrap everything soon. And as soon as I dust everything I can put up the rest of our decorations! I'm feeling organized and relaxed over it all this year and that's soooooo nice!!

 

@IntenseMagic, making something isn’t something I’m in the right headspace for right now after 17 days straight of vertigo. Luckily I only have 2 gifts to buy, 1 of which I kind of know what I’m doing. The other for my mum is a big fat question mark at this stage.

 

Are your decorations up?
Yes! I still have a few other things I want to do. Mostly outdoors...clean up my planters and put some wreaths and poinsettias out.

Tree up? Decorated?
Yes!

Shopping done?
Yes! I did most of my shopping on-line this weekend and then hit some local stores for the rest of it.

Did you do Black Friday?
A little bit but not really for the sales...more because it just sort of worked out for me to go while my mom took the kids to a movie!

Wrapping done?
Nope! That's something I'll procrastinate at.

 

Are your decorations up? Not a single one!
Tree up? Decorated? Nope.
Shopping done? Did you do Black Friday? I bought a few things, but not even close to done.
Wrapping done? Nope.

I just took our "Christmas photos" yesterday. I've started putting together some of the gifts I send (photobooks, collages, etc)

Disclaimer: we very rarely decorate before December and I don't buy gifts very far in advance, so I'm not behind per se.

 

Nope, nope, nope, and nope!

My mom makes my sister & I handmade Christmas decorations every year (wreaths, little signs, etc.) so those go up in my house for sentimental reasons but otherwise I don't decorate aside from my small Christmas tree collection. We did decorate my parents' house over Thanksgiving weekend, and they have 10+ boxes of stuff.

I hope we can get our tree this weekend (the Christmas tree is my favorite part). We have LOTS of ornaments which are all sentimental and personal to us. I see the tree as a living seasonal scrapbook so it's a hodge-podge of my childhood ornaments and my children's, and I love to reflect on (and tell about if they let me) the story or person behind each ornament as we hang them.

I have done zero shopping but that's always the way when you're on a budget. I'm not worried.

 

Me Too!!!!

 

This is totally me too!

 

The tree goes up on Sunday so today and tomorrow I'll be pulling out bins and getting everything ready for decorating on Sun when Bailey gets here. I'm so excited (she was in the hospital for almost 2 yrs so this is the first time she's coming to the house since before the TBI and will get to stay for a few hrs before going back to the carehome for meds). I've done some shopping but now it's getting hard b/c now I don't know what else to get and need to start looking thru ads and flyers for ideas. Somehow it all gets done so I'm not worried about it but I do need to get my butt in gear and get things done

 

We got our tree the day after Thanksgiving. I LOVE having a real tree and that's about the earliest we can get one and it last through Christmas. My eyes were bigger than our room though... the tree hits the ceiling and left no room to put the star on top! Ah well. I love it so much anyhow.

Shopping... I am close to being done. Waiting on a few more things to arrive in the mail. Also, I have ZERO idea what to get my husband's mom and stepfather, which is how it is every year. They are the world's hardest people to shop for. However, other than them, I think we're done.

I haven't wrapped one single thing, though. Since we moved, we also have to ship almost everything, so I am going to have a wrapping party while we watch football this weekend and hopefully get it all shipped out at the beginning of the week.

Since this is our first Christmas in the north, we're all crossing our fingers for a white Christmas!

 

Are your decorations up?
Yes, but only the stuff that doesn't break (DD is 3.5 yo)
Tree up? Decorated?
Yes, two weekends ago (also because DD is 3.5 yo). The earliest ever, and I'm already fed up with it! Especially the lights, I have to lean over the couch to switch them on, so most days I just don't.
Shopping done? Did you do Black Friday?
BF here is a joke, it's usually 20% off and really not worth it. Plus I always think that deeply discounted items (like TVs etc) are probably garbage.
Wrapping done?
Wrapping gifts is my favorite! Today I bought three matching paper rolls in pink colors and I'm really happy about it! I'll give presents only to my nieces: small items for an advent calendar I'll make for them (from Christmas Eve to New Year's Eve), and some cash.

 

Are your decorations up?
We're working on them. The tree is up and the lights are on it - we'll hopefully decorate it this weekend.

Tree up? Decorated?
Tree is up, but not decorated yet.

Shopping done?
Not done with shopping yet. About half done.

Did you do Black Friday?
No, I didn't this year.

Wrapping done?
No wrapping yet. I hope my DD is going to do all the wrapping this year.

 

I'm stressed just thinking about this:
Are your decorations up? no
Tree up? no Decorated? nope, tree still not up.
Shopping done? not one thing purchased yet! Did you do Black Friday? not this year, I worked.
Wrapping done? since I haven't bought one thing - this answer is a solid no.