Christmas Prep

This will mainly be a jumble of things, but I had to write something out or else I wasn't going to be able to focus on anything that needs to be done today.

I spoke to the real estate agent yesterday. Not much is happening yet and he said to not really expect anything until the first week of January. I figured with the holidays, we wouldn't hear anything, so it was basically just a confirmation of what I was thinking. During our conversation, I came to the conclusion that he's more frustrated than we are. I'm just happy we have someone who is willing to put up with all of this for us. We've been more than pleased with the service they've provided. He's even stopping by this evening because he "has a little something" for us. He's been giving us gift cards to various places since August, so it will be interesting to see what he's bringing us that couldn't fit in the Christmas card he sent. John thinks it will be a fruit basket.

Now, I've had a bit of disappointment with not being in a house for Christmas this year and it's been affecting my Christmas spirit. I can see that the boys are very excited and I am looking forward to watching them open their presents, but I haven't found that overwhelming Christmas mood that has brought me so much joy in the past. In order to remedy this, I made the decision that we will load the boys up in the car after dinner this evening to go to Winter Wonderland at Portland International Raceway. We haven't gone on any Christmas light viewing adventures yet this year and I've always wanted to go to this event, so it seemed like a good time. Hopefully I can get some pictures, but we will be in a moving car and it's cold outside, so I doubt I'll have the windows down!

In good news, I can say that I have happily been finished Christmas shopping for over a week now. I still had to get diapers at Target two days ago and that wasn't the most fun experience, but I survived. :^) The presents aren't wrapped, but I have kept my Christmas tradition from high school in regards to wrapping: On Christmas Eve, I gather all the presents and wrapping items in the living room and I watch A Christmas Story as I wrap everything. It's definitely something I look forward to every year. It also keeps wrapped presents out from under the tree until after the kids are in bed the night before, so there's no temptation for them.
But before all the wrapping happens, I have to get this place clean, so that's what I will be doing today and part of tomorrow. I get a Christmas present tomorrow afternoon....a little trip to the salon while John watches the boys. Nothing beats a fresh hair cut for Christmas!