Feeling Less Grinchy

Well, it's that time of year again!! Usually by now I have gift ideas written for everyone on our list and even have purchased a few of them. This year my mind is totally obsessed with finding Pattie's gift which is not looking good. We want to get her the LeapPad Explorer Tablet and they are nigh unfindable! My wonderful father-in-law even drove all over his part of Houston looking last Saturday but to no avail. An employee at our local Toys R Us told me that they are getting some in on the 11th and they open at 7 am. Holy Frick! Am I really going to have to wait in a parking lot before a store opens to have a chance of finding one?
When I chose this gift for her, I had no idea it was the "IT" gift for kids this year. Nor did I realize that supply would fall so horrifically short of demand. They are totally unavailable online unless you want to pay twice what they are worth to some ass hat on ebay. I am so focused on trying to find this gift for Pattie that I have neglected the rest of the holiday preparations. Well, no more!
Yesterday after cleaning up the living room, I put out what decorations I could. We haven't gotten a tree yet and with the rainy, nasty weather we have had, I don't know when we will. I also don't know where we are going to put it! The place we have had it every year is now occupied by our loveseat and there are two smallish spots we can put a tree now. We will have to be careful in our choosing a tree. It CAN be tall but it HAS to be skinny.
I also spent a while yesterday making a Christmas playlist on youtube. All of these things have helped me out a bit. I am more into the spirit of the season. On Friday I subbed in the elementary school library and watched "A Charlie Brown Christmas" four times throughout the day. It is my second favorite Christmas show and it has my all-time favorite Christmas show moment when Linus tells Charlie Brown what Christmas is all about.
The hard part now is deciding what to get everyone on our list. Pattie and Clay want EVERYTHING and Raley just says, "I am just happy with anything I get" which is sweet and makes me happy but I want to get him something he wants, you know? All the boys really ever ask for is Legos and I am getting kind of sick of them and they don't keep them contained like they are supposed to! Yesterday I had reached my limit after Pattie fell in their room trying to step around the Legos all over the floor. I said, "There will never be another Lego in my house if that room isn't completely clean in one hour!" And it was. I guess they could tell I was serious about it.
I have a few ideas for a few gifts and I am pretty sure I know what will go in the treat baskets this year. I'm not too sure how many treat baskets I will make though. And we haven't figured out when we are going down to Houston. Jayme is hoping to get New Year's weekend off so we can have a nice long visit. *fingers crossed*
All of this is to say that I have been feeling kind of Grinchy so far this year. Then yesterday Pattie pulled out a plush Nativity set my parents gave to Raley when he was a baby. She seemed to recognize it. She pulled each figure out of the stable and told me what it was. "A camel, a sheep, a pig, a boy, a girl. Look Mommy! It's baby Jesus!" We may not be the most religious family around. We don't belong to or even attend a church but we do teach our children about God and Jesus and even though it has been 1/4 of her life since the last time she saw it, she knew exactly what that little baby in the manger was. And the true meaning a Christmas came through and my heart grew a size or two (to paraphrase a classic story).
So maybe this will give me the impetus I need to finish the ideas and start the purchasing and finally get to enjoy the season. As for Jayme, his Grinchy heart remains, as ever, two sizes too small.