Is it just me, or is this the worst time of year to have a major holiday? Or two or three? I don’t know about y’all, but it seems like every morning when I get up, instead of being shorter, my to-do list keeps getting longer and longer. I have freelance projects to do. Interview questions to answer. Sales videos to record. Christmas shopping to do. Computer systems/programs to upgrade. Blog posts to write. E-mails to send and respond to. Blog tours to set up. Christmas parties and concerts to attend. Travel to plan. Cards to purchase and send. And then there’s that book that has to be written . . .

Is it any wonder we have a tendency to lose our “Holiday Spirit” around about, oh, the 7th of December?

And just as I typed that, I remembered—today is a very special day. You see, today is the two-year anniversary of my first book contract. Yep, I received the contract from Barbour for Stand-In Groom on December 7, 2007. Happy anniversary to me!

Okay, anyway, back to complaining about how this is the most stressful time of the year.

(Wait—must go get my second cup of coffee first.)

That’s better. You know, it’s no wonder it takes me forever to get these blog posts written. I have to stop for coffee, stop to find images (yay for Google Image Search!), and then figure out where I was going when I stopped to do everything else.

(For example, I picked up the headset microphone that I got to dictate my writing to the laptop in the car to see if it would work on the desktop computer. It works, but apparently Windows Speech Recognition software doesn’t recognize Google Chrome, my default browser. I wanted to see if I could dictate my blog post, but I guess I’ll have to stick to typing for now. ;-))

So where was I? Oh, yeah, this is a very stressful time of year.

Yesterday, I was finally able to visit the “Young Adult” class at the church I’m now a “regular visitor” at. It was a small class, though that’s to be expected this time of year, and unbelievably, I wasn’t the only unmarried person in the room! (Though I think I was probably the oldest. Most of the rest appear to be in their late 20s/early 30s. But, hey, don’t ask, don’t tell, right?) They graciously invited me to go to lunch with them after church (the first Sunday of the month is apparently their “social Sunday”), so of course I went so I could have a chance to get to know the few who went better to start feeling even more connected to this church. (I sat with the couple I met the very first Sunday I visited, Cathy and Jim, during worship service this week, and had a couple of other people I’ve met over the past six or eight weeks greet me/come speak to me as well.)

Different denomination or not, there are two primary things that are leading me to want to join this church after the Christmas holidays: the friendliness/hospitality of everyone I’ve met so far (I’ve already been added to the young adults’ class’s e-mail list!) and the fact that, after more than a year of sleeping in on Sundays to the point where I couldn’t convince myself to get out of bed early enough to even watch my previous church’s service on TV live, since I’ve been visiting this church, I’ve not only had no problem getting out of bed, throughout the week, I actually look forward to going.

So how does this tie in with the subject of this post? Well, at lunch, they started discussing planning a Christmas party, but everyone around the table talked about how they have something going on practically every evening between now and Christmas (or being out of town). Since I haven’t been involved in church or choir or even had work events to attend this time of year since 2007, I had to count myself blessed that I don’t have rehearsals/performances and work events and SS class parties, etc., to add to the to-do list for December. But it did make me think that this is the worst time of the year to try to have a major holiday . . . or two or three.

I did manage to remember that my nephew’s birthday is Wednesday. Thank goodness for Amazon, and for the fact that a couple of months ago, I ran across something I wanted to get him, which I’d added to a Gift Buying wishlist. So all I had to do was go in, move it to my cart, choose the appropriate shipping address and gift options, and click “Complete Purchase”; and his gift will be there on his birthday. I’ll do most of the rest of my Christmas gift shopping the same way.

My aunt posted this as part of her Facebook status update on Saturday:

We’re gonna . . . go Christmas shopping. Pray that our good moods don’t disappear in the store.

To which I responded:

Mine disappeared in the parking lot.

I had to go out Saturday and pick up a few things down at the Cool Springs mall. And even though I got there pretty early, the traffic and parking lot were already crazy. And I couldn’t wait and go during the week this week when it wouldn’t have been so bad—because the store was only having their sale on Saturday and Sunday. Between people not paying attention to where they were going (or not knowing) or people seeing folks circling the parking lot trolling for a spot and going out to sit in their car to make it appear they’re leaving, sit there for a while, then get out and wave at me and mouth we’re not leaving, I had definitely lost my Christmas spirit by the time I did finally find a parking place.

And while I wish I could say I’ll be avoiding major shopping areas on the weekends between now and Christmas, that isn’t the case. Next weekend, I get to fight the traffic in the Rivergate and Mt. Juliet areas for the MTCW Christmas Book Signing events. So I’m going to have to load up on Christmas spirit between now and then (which should be easy, with the group’s Christmas brunch just before the first signing) to make sure I haven’t completely lost it by the time I get into the store.

Oh, that reminds me, I have to update my marketing flyers to include the cover for Ransome’s Crossing.

Sigh. See what I mean about how the to-do list keeps getting longer instead of shorter? So much to do, so little time.

How’s your holiday to-do list shaping up?