Holiday Burnout

Hmm....I'm sitting in my family room looking at my undecorated tree and I can't help but wonder if I'm all Christmas-ed out just three days into Advent. Let's review my Christmas craziness, shall we?

In mid-September I stared my serious Christmas shopping. By last week I was done and every gift that has entered my house has been wrapped with the exception of a few gift cards. Shopping burn out--check! If I can shop only at Acme, Target and 1 solitary trip to A.C. Moore between now and Christmas, I'd be perfectly happy.

Christmas music is getting a tad old at this time. If I hear the Rudolph soundtrack one more time I'm going to go out of my mind. I have been enjoying the beautiful music of L'Angelus' O Night Divine album. So I'm tired of some Christmas music and there are certain songs that I can't get enough of, but when you wake up at 2AM and you have Christmas songs stuck in your head it can make you a little crazy (Let's just say Carol of the Bells can go on and on in my head for hours). I'm starting to think that maybe I shouldn't have started playing the Christmas tunes the day after Halloween. Bryan was right (never quote me on that) that I was going to get sick of the Christmas music. Ugh.

Then we move on to decorating. On Friday I broke out our stockings, the girls' Advent Calendars and Bryan set up the skinny tree in the living room. That night I decorated the tree with the ornaments the girls have made over the years, and I put out our Little People Nativity. On Saturday I shampooed our family room rugs with the cool steam cleaner my wonderful husband got me for our anniversary. (And yes, I really did want a steam cleaner from my husband as an anniversary present.) That night Bryan set up our tree while the kids and I went to Mass. On Sunday I wanted to put the outdoor lights up, but I had to trim the hedges first. Somehow I got carried away [with the lights not the hedge trimming--we learned our lesson about trimming too much two years ago] and we put more lights out on our poor shrubs than we ever have in the past. Let's just say I was trying to keep up with the neighbors who were decorating.

And before I forget, I also spent many hours this weekend working on the Advent wreath craft I'm going to do with my CCD class on Sunday. Aside from the many weeks of saving toilet paper rolls for this craft, I spent about an hour painting the tubes purple and pink. (I had to mix the paint, too.) Then I had to cut wreath shapes out of paper plates, hot glue the tubes to the wreaths, cut and glue yellow tissue paper flames to the tubes and then cut a large quantity of green tissue paper squares to be used on the wreath. What on God's green earth was I thinking when I came up with this craft in July? I clearly was out in the sun for too long when I came up with this brilliant idea. In fact, I daresay this craft is a big reason I'm feeling wiped out. Who would have guessed that a single craft would take hours to prepare for a class that is only an hour long? I'll have to post a picture of the finished product that I made as our Advent wreath for home and the prayer space for my CCD class. It's pretty cute.

I think I'm burnt out, but there's a problem. The wreaths haven't been hung yet so the outside isn't finished and the main tree in our family room is bare. Maybe not feeling well is to blame, but as of right now I don't feel like doing any more decorating. I just want to relax. Here's hoping I feel motivated tomorrow. The girls want to know when I'm decorating the tree. I did manage to get my Christmas cards mailed out today. In another couple of days I'll be getting phone calls from friends and family complaining that I sent my cards out too soon. Tis the season!