I. Suck.

First off...Happy Holidays!

Second....I. Suck.

Yesterday...oops, check that since it is already passed midnight now...the day BEFORE yesterday we take our beloved puppies in to get bathed. They came back several different shades lighter than when we took them in. They were THAT dirty. Anyhoo...we let our old lady sleep in our room for once and guess what...I got very little sleep. My poor baby Remi snores like my grandfather who, unfortunately, you can hear snoring even if you stood outside the house. He is THAT loud...and so is my girl. Add a sick hubby to the mix who is adding his own acoustics of snoring and throat-clearing in his sleep...and it's a veritable orchestra in our room...one that has vaulted ceilings so the sounds are just echoing everywhere.

I actually needed a bit of rest for once. I had to gear up for today...whoops...yesterday since Sean was going to stand duty and I had a butt-load of baking to do...not to mention all the gazillion loads of laundry and packing for the next 10 days for the fam. All needing to be done and ready to go by the time my wonderful hubby arrives in the morning so we can get on the road to The Fam ASAP. Oh yeah...did I mention gifts?

No, I did not. Why should I? The forward-thinking type A individual I am has devised the perfect plan the past few years of ordering my gifts and shipping them to my mom's house...where I stay up real late and wrap to my heart's content. I *heart* you Amazon Prime.

So...the kids were pretty good, baking was smooth sailing, laundry was smooth sailing, and I still was a pretty good single parent today. It was precisely at 1953...or 7:53pm for you civilians that my life...ok, less drama...my DAY took a turn for the worse. The doorbell rings. WTF? Really? Almost 8pm. I peek outside and there is a figure dressed in dark clothes standing at the end of my driveway. Crap. Really? Ok...my two crazy but CLEAN dogs are with me at the doorway. I see a box in front of my door, a truck circling around our cul-de-sac, and quickly surmise that this dude standing at the end of my driveway is a UPS dude.

What? Almost everyone knows we're going to be in DC...not here. It is addressed to me.

Hmmmmmm....

Oh...well what do you know? It's a portion of the huge order I put in on Tuesday...the order that was the most stressful since I needed to make sure that all and everyone were accounted for since with my Wednesday being insanely hellish...I wasn't about to add shopping to my list. No siree Bob...I don't think so.

Funny...why are these gifts being sent here and not to my mom's?

Oh yeah...because I'm an idiot.

In my stress-induced haze of procrastination, being sole-planner/caretaker of this fam, and again...sole planner...I neglected to double-check my order and see that I sent it to myself at my MOM'S address and not MINE.

Why? Because I suck.

So, no instead of getting on the road ASAP in the morning...we now will have to wait for this damn package to arrive...hopefully not close to 8pm like tonight..oops...LAST NIGHT. What's more...UPS actually was supposed to deliver it TODAY...crap...YESTERDAY but had to reschedule it to tomorrow...oops, TODAY (12/24).

I hate me. I really, really hate me right now.

Somehow moving my whole family up halfway up the East Coast by myself during the holidays...even managing to make HOMEMADE presents during a move and while my hubby was out to sea seemed a LOT less stressful.

However...a glimmer of positivity in all this mess...besides the 4 cakes and 3 different types of cookies I made in one day...I did manage to take holiday photos for a holiday card that will not make it out again...keeping up with the yearly tradition I have upheld since we last left here in 2006. So, after moves to CT and FL and now back here...at least I kept up with the tradition of taking the freakin' photo. Except...we couldn't take it in front of our lake since with all the rain we've been having it's a bit soggy back there...not to mention the dog poop that we still have yet to pick up!

I managed to screw up this year's photo by looking a little plasticky...so, enjoy one of the outtakes where I don't have a crazy fake smile on my face!

Oh yeah...like my Amazon order, I'm not rechecking this...so I look forward to my hubby pointing out all of my typos and grammatical errors! ;o)

Happy Holidays, Everyone! Please stay safe and enjoy the time you have with your loved ones this season. We're so thankful that we actually get to spend the holidays together and it makes all these petty problems just that...petty and insignificant.

Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanza, & Happy Hanukkah!

We're coming, Talia...as soon as the Man in Brown (or Men in Brown...and def men since it's only males who do our route so far) comes...we're coming.