That's all there is to it. I HAVE LOST. I have tried long and hard--and will continue to try, although it's evident there is no hope--to resist my family's attempts to get all Christmassy before Thanksgiving. I love Christmas as much as anybody. In fact, I would dare say I love it at least as much as the rest of my family. But I've always been of the persuasion that you should hold off until after Thanksgiving to begin celebrating. It's like saving the cherry for last when you get a sundae. There's something about waiting and reserving the Christmas fun until Christmas time that makes you enjoy and appreciate it much more deeply than when you start way early. What's so special about something you can do any ole' time?! It's so wonderful because it only comes around once a year. Theoretically, anyway. Here at my house it is always trying to sneak in before schedule and this year it has gotten wa-a-a-a-a-a-ay out of hand. All of the kids burst out singing "O, Christmas Tree" several times a day. They all (kids AND James) insist on going to look at all of the Christmas stuff no matter where we are; Wal-Mart, Target, Home Depot... And James keeps buying Christmassy things. It doesn't matter how much I try to discourage them, there's just no winning. They are all in full force Christmas mode and there's no turning back now. I keep telling them, "Just 11 more days, guys! You can do it! Hold off--you'll enjoy Christmas sooooo much more if you just wait!!!" But it's like telling your pet rock to do a backflip. It AIN'T HAPPENING. ~sigh~ So my new goal is to try to avoid them all for the next 11 days. Ha! Wish me luck!!!

We had a good Sunday. Good morning services. James preached about being thankful. (I suspect he's subconsciously trying to rush past Thanksgiving a week early because HE'S already in Christmas gear, too!) We came home and had time for a nap before heading to Sister Grimes' house for my VLB service. It went well, I thought, but I didn't make it to the one hour mark. That's always my goal. I just don't have enough to say to fill up all that time, you know?! We even sang 5 choruses tonight. Oh well. Hopefully the quality of what was shared surpassed the quantity, right?!

We went to Target after church tonight to look for a few things we hadn't been able to find elsewhere. The kids made it out with new blanket sleepers, and James did pretty well to stay away from the Christmassy looking stuff. (Only because of the limited selection and sizes, I assure you!) We have one particular child (the one who also complains that sleepers are "for babies") who kicks his covers off, then curls up into a little ball and shivers all night long. So we've been looking for some nice, cozy pj's. We finally found some--and they all rung up $3 cheaper than we were expecting. Wa-Hoo!

James insists that he would buy a sleeper for himself if they made them in his size. I insist that I'm moving out if he ever does find one. HA! He did, however, find himself a set of Grinch pj's. He bought Rudolph pants last week. ~sigh~ What can you do?! He tells me that I'M the Grinch around here, not him. And all because I want to enjoy Thanksgiving AND Christmas instead of skipping over the first and rushing into the second. He even had the nerve to call me a bad banana tonight... with a greasy black peel. ;-)

Even Hershey has joined the ranks of the pre-celebrators!!!

Ha! James saw this sweater for $2.50 at Target tonight and couldn't pass it up. I've always thought dog sweaters are sooooo dumb. But when your dog is a poodle to start with, what's to lose?! It's not like you're worried about him suddenly "looking dumb" or something! Ha!

The kids are sacked out all over our floor again tonight. I'm going to go take a bath and catch up on some reading. Tomorrow it's back to school and work, work, work! I've got to get the ceiling painted in Kate's room. Right after James takes down the 42 little white hooks that are up there from the last folks who lived here. And the three drawings the girl left up there. And little plastic canvas crafts that are tacked up. Seriously! I've left them there all this time because I figured with hot pink and turquois walls, who cares about a little left-over art on the ceiling?! But now that the walls are ALMOST white (I can STILL just barely see the circle on that one wall--I can't get rid of it!!!), it's time for the ceiling to be cleared, too. I'm setting small goals for myself. Surely I can get one ceiling painted in a day, right?!

The only other excitement of the day was my near death experience. I had left the laptop leaning against a table and it fell over. It's happened before, but this time when I picked it up it wouldn't DO anything--I just had a black screen staring at me. The power light was on, but it wouldn't respond to anything or even turn on or off. So I snuck outside and called Jon for help. He was, indeed, able to save my life. ("Unplug the computer, take the battery out for a few seconds, then put it back in and see if she'll boot up.") It worked!!! ~sigh~ What a relief. James does know about it though. He came in while I was trying to figure out where on earth the battery compartment was on the back of this thing. (There are little buttons and levers and screws all over the place back there!) I hate it when I get caught and have to fess up! Life is so much better when I can find what I've lost or fix or replace what I've broken BEFORE he knows anything about it! Oh well. The computer works, and I only received a very short and mild lecture. James is the KING of lectures (I think it's what makes him tick! Ha!), so I made out pretty good. All is well!