The Christmas season has begun.

I think I'm in pretty good shape. A third of the Christmas presents are bought, wrapped and, soon, on their way to their recipients. Another third of the Christmas presents are bought, but not wrapped or on their way yet. And the other third of the present? Well, some are bought but none are wrapped. Fortunately, they don't have to be mailed, so I'm not on as tight a deadline. :)

We weren't home to take advantage of the gorgeous weather this weekend, so Kevin is taking a day off this week, probably tomorrow, to put up the outside lights. He'll probably get the tree down and set up, too, and we'll decorate it later. I put up two wreaths yesterday. On Friday, I'll hang up the candy tree that I got from my mom over the weekend. It's a relic from my youth and Alison is old enough to enjoy it. I have to replace one of the pieces of yarn because it's still tied in a bow and is stuck that way from some old candy, but otherwise it's in pretty good shape for having been packed away in the basement for probably 20 years.....can't remember how old I was when we stopped using it.

And Christmas baking has begun. We make a lot of cookies here at Christmastime. We do about 7 different kinds and most are double batches, so there are cookies everywhere. We do send a lot of them to our neice and nephews, so that cuts down on the amount that we're actually eating here. :) Yesterday afternoon my "assistant" and I mixed up the Swiss Cookies and after supper she and daddy put them on the cookie sheets and decorated them. They turned out pretty well, and taste great (I broke one, so of course we had to eat it!). Today, Raspberry Thumbprints are on the agenda. I'm hoping to a different kind every day so that we can get them and the present in the mail by the middle of next week. We'll see how that goes.

If all goes according to plan, we will be ready for Christmas in plenty of time to enjoy the season and not be rushing around like crazy people a week before the big day.