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the holidays!! exhausted already ?

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Ann

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Yes, friends the rush is on.

I have decorated a tree, decorated practically every room in my house, decorated the outside of my house, and shopped for gifts til there is no tomorrow.

Then I cooked Thanksgiving dinner for 11, cleaned that up. And now wrap all those gifts.

I''m exhausted - anyone else?
 

diamondfan

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I am a bit overwhelmed already. It is definitely on, the rush and craziness. I am not looking forward to it, plus it is my birthday in December and I have to pack my kids and me (thank God hubby does his own packing) to go away to a sunny spot and then come home and get ready to go to our mountain house which is COLD so I need to switch gears immediately upon getting home...unpack, repack, get dog from kennel, restock one fridge and shop again, all without much help from my hubby...I always find this time of year very hectic. Gifts are taken care of, we do not exchange gifts with many people, but I have already gotten my holiday cards done, which is nice...usually I send a Happy New Year''s card because I have not gotten it together!
 

Mara

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haha no im not exhausted at all!!!
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we spent most of this holiday just relaxing. we needed to catch up on our sleep and quality time spent together which is what we did so it was great.

we''re getting our tree next weekend!

i do 99% of my shopping online so i will start doing that this week most likely. i already have a handful of gifts for my mom, greg and my sister...and with the extended family and friends we are doing a secret santa so that makes it much easier this year...cuts out about 5 extra gifts i don''t have to get.

take a breather ann, can you relax today?!?!?
 

Ann

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I feel your pain!!

Hang in there, do you get any help?
Date: 11/26/2006 12:12:03 PM
Author: diamondfan
I am a bit overwhelmed already. It is definitely on, the rush and craziness. I am not looking forward to it, plus it is my birthday in December and I have to pack my kids and me (thank God hubby does his own packing) to go away to a sunny spot and then come home and get ready to go to our mountain house which is COLD so I need to switch gears immediately upon getting home...unpack, repack, get dog from kennel, restock one fridge and shop again, all without much help from my hubby...I always find this time of year very hectic. Gifts are taken care of, we do not exchange gifts with many people, but I have already gotten my holiday cards done, which is nice...usually I send a Happy New Year''s card because I have not gotten it together!
Cards?? Oh shoot, I forgot about those!!
 

Cind11

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So far we have put up the lights outside, decorated the inside (I have a lot of Christmas decorations) and put up our artificial tree. (we have I''m guessing somewhere between 200-300 ornaments!) I have started addressing my cards. I have bought some gifts. I wouldn''t say I am exhausted yet but I get slightly anxious because I like to get my shopping finished early so I can "enjoy" December. I don''t like going near any retail place too close to Christmas, it makes me crazy. Before I had kids, my shopping was frequently done by Thanksgiving but that NEVER happens anymore.

I hope you can relax a little so you can enjoy the season.
 

KimberlyH

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I've never been overwhelmed by the holidays, I would be so sad if I was as it's my favorite time of year. I wrote Christmas cards out before Thanksgiving, they were mailed yesterday. We got our tree and decorated it yesterday as well. I put some Christmas up around the house (I went from an 800 sq. ft. condo to a 4000 sq. ft. house so Christmas decorations are sparse but I'm okay with it for our first year living here) and hubby is going to start working on the lights today.

Shopping shouldn't be too difficult, I've figured out most of the gifts I just need to buy them and I do a lot of shopping online. I always do homemade baskets for neighbors and people who have done kind things for me/us throughout the year but that I/we aren't particulary close to, but I love to cook/bake so it's enjoyable. I think I'll make tamales this year...FUN!

Ann and diamondfan, I hope you find some ways to relax and enjoy the season...I can see how all the pressure would make it not so fun and exciting.
 

Dee*Jay

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We just got back from a week in Phoenix so I have no excuse to be anything other than totally relaxed.

My shopping is done and 99% wrapped. The cards are sitting on the table with the list of addresses and a big pile of snowflake stamps. The tree can''t be put up until after Friday because we''re having a "pre-holiday maddness party" (yah, right!). So as of right now I''m OK, but that could change at any minute, LOL.
 

mtrb

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Mar 8, 2003
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Not that exhausted.

Bought a fake tree this year. Its a really nice GE pre-lit with around 1700 limbs. Getting a real tree and having it mess up my house, and trying to figure out how to dispose of it is a pain. We are doing most of our shopping on line this year and I officially will not go near any mall between November 25th and January 5th.

That is how I reduce my stress.
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Another tip... I know a few people who actually go out in January, once everything is on sale and buy all their gifts for the following year then. Now that takes a lot of stress out of the season. I haven't done it yet, but I am considering it...plus you get great deals in early January.
 

UCLABelle

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I wish I had Diamondfan''s holiday schedule!

As for me, I am not exhausted, rather I am trying to get into the "spirit"...My beloved grandfather died a few months back
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, my mother is ill
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, I am away from home
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and made at myself for pretty much spending a big amount of money on myself :) instead of for others...

I won''t be home until the 22nd and so I won''t get to enjoy a tree until then...which is a bummer
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Ann

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It would be nice to truly enjoy the holidays. That is my reasoning behind doing everything early, but why is it so draining?
Every year I say, ok, I won''t do so much. But I have a nice big house and by golly I feel it deserves to be dressed up for the holidays. I suppose I could just stick a wreath on the front door and put up 1 tree, but I love Christmas and the trimmings.
I get almost no help doing all this, hubby tends to like the end result, but refuses to help.
The "take down" and clean up, now that I really dread!!
 

diamondfan

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Belle, I actually do not like traveling too much, especially during the holidays. I get very stressed about the details and I worry about everyone having fun, and I hate packing and flying, and being the organizer I am I worry about all the arrangements working out. My kids are such different ages (the oldest to the youngest) that it is hard to keep them all occupied and happy. Plus my 14 year old wants to hang with kids his age and I cannot always make that happen, so I feel badly that he is not having fun. The only good thing this year is that my mother in law is not coming on our holiday trip...since she just came for Thanksgiving she realized it is too far for her to get from California to the Caribbean and she is just going to come here after winter break...so I am off the hook there!
 

Mara

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i LOVE the holidays...we decorate the house and a bit on the outside too with lights and little litup trees flanking the front door. this year we have to figure out what to do with our tree as we got a new EC this year and it''s taking up the space where the tree used to go...so it might get a little funky in here this season with space constraints! haha. also i got some new snowflakes from RH last year that i am excited to dangle in our french doors.

shopping i could mostly do without....but i LOVE wrapping gifts. i typically save them all up and then wrap in two large bunches so it takes me a few hours each time and i play christmas music. but we also cannot put gifts around the tree or else little miss rat will ''unwrap'' them while we are gone. last year we put them under the tree and put the big metal gate up around the tree so she couldn''t get to them while we were gone...after coming home and finding a few unwrapped presents mangled on the rug.
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diamondfan

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I have actually heard of people doing that with the shopping after the holiday. I try to avoid our mall here til mid January when most of the returners are done, and that can be good time to get some bargains. Works well if you know what someone might want for the next holiday.

We do not celebrate Christmas as we are Jewish, but I personally love how festive it gets in the East here, esp. when there is a bit of snow on the ground. I try to jazz the house up a bit, but this year we are gone during Chanukah so I am not sure what I will do. I try to make it pretty and festive because sometimes my kids feel left out and I want to make it fun for them.

The only other thing I dread is the WEIGHT GAIN. I work out a lot and eat well, but when you have lots of little events and big events to attend it is hard to not over do it with the eating and drinking. I always worry about just being a total glutton and not being able to fit in my clothes...we have stuff for my dh''s office and different things and I always tend to eat and feel ill afterwards, because it is all so good and I cannot pass it up....
 

VegasAngel

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Oct 12, 2005
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Cant say that I feel overwhelmed, yet. We went to a relatives house for Thanksgiving so that was easy. As for Christmas, I did put the tree up & I am almost done decorating it. Put up some candy cane lights in the front yard. For Christmas shopping I do that online. I dont have the patience to brave traffic & crowds I also dont want to drag my baby around. So far the only exhausting thing is keeping my baby from playing with the christmas tree, what a pita. It''s a fake tree because god knows my daughter would eat every single needle she could get her hands on. My husband & I cannot believe the things our daughter manages to find & eat. You know how gorilla''s dig in/groom each others hair looking for bugs to pick off & eat? Thats what it reminds me of.
 
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