the countdown begins

so i found out yesterday that my brother & his girlfriend are coming for christmas. yay! they were here in october for his 35th birthday and we saw them in april for our wedding, so this is a good year. (we typically only see them once, maybe twice a year. 3 times in one year is a record. although, now that i think about it, we'll be seeing them AGAIN in may when we all go to hawaii for my grandparents 60th wedding anniversary. so, FOUR times within a 13 month period. that'll be a tough record to break.)

where was i? oh yeah. so they're coming on the 26th and leaving on the 1st. this is typical for them as it allows them to spend time with her family on the actual holiday. and we don't mind pushing christmas dinner & opening presents back a day or so if they're coming up. it also makes the hassle of thanksgiving (2 family deals 45 minutes of travel time apart) obsolete.

as i was reading his email yesterday i realized that holy crap, christmas is only 21 (now 20) days away! and i'm not done shopping. i have NO idea what to get my dad this year and mom's been no help in that department. i'm already done with my brother (amazing in itself) and i'm almost done with his gf's stuff. vrock is done and with one or two minor things to get for everyone else, we're pretty much done. i'll be doing some baking this weekend which will round out the gifts and then it'll be time to pack up the boxes for shipping.

this time of year is always a whirlwind for me and it always seems that christmas comes & goes much too fast. i wonder if it will always be like that? i've noticed (much more so this year than ever before) that the things i've looked forward to (predominately the wedding) have snuck up on me much sooner than i'd anticipated and then POOF, they're done. what happened to the time when you could savor something?