I'll Be Home For Christmas

...if only in my dreams.

If you look very closely at the Harried Christmas picture, you can see the almost finished living room primer. Maybe I'll have the living room walls painted by summer - just in time for them to get ripped out while I go visit the mid-west.

Last night I finally finished the first coat of cobalt blue paint on the upper half of the "master" bath (the lower half's beadboard) - that only took me four months. I'm pickin' up speed now.

I've only sent out seven Christmas cards, I can't find my Betty Crocker with all the favorite cookie recipes (and the special hand-written ones loose in the front), I ran out of wrapping paper (no, really, I thought I had enough), and my husband's present is just two rows away from being finished and I can't seem to find the time. But today my son shared a toy at the library - I got the spirit of Christmas, baby. I am stressed, angry, lonely, homesick, realllllly lonely and all I can think about right now is how blessed I am to have two beautiful, challenging children who think I'm amazing. My car runs, my coat's warm, my back's still strong and I'm still standing and still trying. Oh, how very trying I am.

I hope each and every one of you are filled with that very special, very personal Christmas spirit that can overwhelm you in just a moment by its beautiful simplicity.

God Bless Us, Every One.