"Ho Ho Ho!"

I know, I'm pathetically behind on my posts. It's like I said to my friend Lynne last night - "Christmas is barreling down on us like a freight train!" - and I haven't even cleaned up from Thanksgiving yet! I hear there could be a lot of snow this weekend, so probably a good thing to snuggle up inside and get some work done around the house. I know we'll put up our tree for sure, and I'll wrap some of those great buys we got on Black Friday.

I think Lynne and I will be going to the Christmas Home Tour (that the Holland Garden Club puts on every Christmas) later this afternoon/evening. There are 5 homes on the north side of Holland that will be decorated to the hilt for Christmas. It's those huge mansion-type homes out by the lake. I'll probably been insanely jealous afterward, but it still puts me in the Christmas spirit! And truth be told, I feel very lucky to have my house.

Scott and I took Dad to buy a new TV set on Tuesday night. He is pretty excited! I'm happy to say that we found him a nice 47" one at Sam's Club. It's HDTV and he will be getting all set up by Charter Cable today. I talked to him last night (he's already watching the reguar channels) and he told me he could see the score from the Piston's game more clearly than he has been able to for a long time. So, that's great. The man spends most of his hours in front of the TV - I'm happy we are able to make it a little nicer for him.

I was thinking - should we do a quick update via "comments" to my blog as far as how we stand with our buying for our adopted Christmas family? I'm sure we don't want to duplicate items. We should have everything bought by next Tuesday, so that Rachel and I can bring the gifts to Brenda next Wednesday. Here's what my family has so far:

1. Christmas-themed wicker basket for non-perishables


2. Christmas gift wrap, scotch tape, bows


3. 1 set of blue full-size flannel sheets


4. Gloves for the mom


5. Insulated gloves for John


6. Earrings for Sarah


7. Hair straightener for the mom


8. Black bath mat


9. Long-sleeved top for Sarah

I still plan on getting a few canned goods and Katie will be getting a gas card. I was also thinking that the mom probably doesn't get too many luxuries for herself, so I plan to buy her a couple of things from Bath & Body Works. How's it going with everyone else?

On the subject of Christmas, I'm excited that we'll be having it at our house this year! Rachel and Katie and I have been talking about what we might want to do that's fun and maybe a little different from what we've done before, but so far we haven't come up with any brainstorms. Of course we will still want to stay with some traditions, and I think everyone still likes to play bingo, which is fine, but I'm just wondering if anyone has any other thoughts/ideas of fun things we might do? I'll also start thinking about the menu soon and probably ask you to bring something, OK?