Christmastime, for me, always brings some wide mood swings. On the one hand, I am in love with the entire holiday: the smells, the tree, the house lights… everything. On the other, I get so down about how quickly time passes and how I have to entertain and cook and shop and the pressure of finding the “perfect” gifts, well, sometimes it’s too much to bear.

Last night, Elliot went to bed an entire hour early (he failed to nap at day care) so at 6:15, I was all like, what do I do now? Remembering that Lowe’s was having a half off sale on all their Christmas stuff,  I drove up there in hopes of finding something small and cute for the yard. We’re not putting up all the lights this year since we’re going out of town (at some point and if I told you, I’d be making that big blog mistake of letting you know when to break into my house. Oh, and I am leaving a rabid pit bull on guard so don’t even think about it.) ANYway, I got to Lowe’s and veered left to where they normally have a gigantic fake tree display in place of riding lawn mowers and about 2-3 rows of all their swag. Well, they had about half an aisle of picked-over stuff. It was ridiculous! The weekend must have been insane with sale-crazed shoppers because that place was cleaned out. In one way, I felt like the Christmas spirit must surely have encapsulated Tallahassee’s population and – yay! – we’re all feeling joyous! But then I was all depressed because I left empty-handed.

I got home and began to sort of hyperventilate and feel like the endless loads of laundry and  sweeping, etc would never get done. And I flopped on the couch, cried, and then Ash ordered me to watch TV. Jingle All the Way was on ABCFamily so we actually sat through it. Not the best movie ever but not so bad for the holidays. That Anakin kid could never act, could he? The night ended well and today, even though my cold is still holding strong, I am feeling better about shopping and money and the state of my house. Even though my sister will be coming into town this evening and I have this feeling like I have to be super clean, even though she of all people couldn’t care less.

SO! Even though it’s Tuesday and I’m sick, I am a lot happier in general. Streaming XM Christmas channels in my office helps, as did the latte and orange muffin. As a completely random question, what one gift do you hope someone gets you this year?