Tis the Season!

Christmas comes on December 25th. Each and every year. No surprises, no different day, always the 25th. And yet each year, I feel as though they've moved Christmas up a good five or six days. It's as though somewhere between Thanksgiving and now, they've taken a week off of the calendars. Erased it from existence. Deleted it from the Universe. 

They knew we'd all be too busy to notice. We'd keep moving along in our busied, hurried, stressed out days of All Things Christmas. Why, with decorations to hang, trees to trim, shopping to do, presents to wrap, goodies to bake, parties to attend and cards to mail.. would we really notice that the month between Thanksgiving and Christmas was shrinking? 

Okay it's not really shrinking. There's still a solid month between the two but it sure doesn't feel that way. Not to me, at least. 

On Sunday evenings, once the kiddos are tucked, my husband and I have a standing date at 10pm for a wicked little guilty pleasure series we watch on Showtime called The Affair. Don't judge. Do watch. It's dynamo and we are hooked in a bad way. It's only Season Three so I'm hopeful. Unless they do something wildly insane, similar to the kill off of Brody on Homeland, then I am happy to pay the extra twelve bucks per month to have Showtime. 

Anywhoo, we were still a bit away from it's start time last night, and Jim was catching the last of the Seahawks game, so I decided it would be a good time to log onto Shutterfly, take a Look-See and start to formulate a plan for our family Christmas card. Afterall, the clock is ticking on Christmas and getting cards mailed in time. We lost a good week already, right?

Nestled into our sofa, PJ'd up and with a wonderful pinot in hand, I happily logged onto Shutterfly, feeling a tad bit impressed with myself for this little extra 'end of day' push that was surely going to result in being able to cross yet another item off of my never-ending December To-Do list! Damn, I'm good. Or so I thought...

I typed in my account password, took an accomplished sip of wine, still basking in my own ambition and sat back relaxed and ready to browse. Suddenly, I was assaulted by a large flashing red countdown clock screaming to me that there were only 3 Hours, 15 Minutes and 23 Seconds left to order my cards and receive 50% off the entire order.

Wait. What.

In a matter of seconds, I felt the pajama & wine induced calm, ascend from my body while a new, intense and bawdy determination swept over me. I sat upright almost immediately.

With feet to floor and wine to table, a feeling of urgency fell over me as my evening's priorities suddenly shifted. There would be no Affair. No standing Sunday Date Night on the Sofa. There would be no little Look-See at Christmas card options, no Fun Little Browse through the newest card creations. 

Hell no. This was it. The clock was ticking. 
I had approximately 3 Hours, 14 Minutes and 10 Seconds to create our family's 2016 Christmas Card.

I will spare you the ugly details that transpired over the next 65 minutes of Sunday, December 4th in the Hardin household. I will simply tell you that Each and Every Technical Difficulty that could happen between my iphone and macbook pro, Did, in fact happen.

Words were spoken. Some louder than others. Bad words. Dirty words. The kind of words that united my lips to a bar of dial soap in my early childhood. 

No Christmas card was made, only started. And then lost. Lost in translation, in confusion, in cyberspace and in exhaustion. Gone. For another day. Gone like the 50 percent off sale. Gone like the ticking minutes on the flashing countdown clock and gone like the week we lost somewhere between Thanksgiving and Christmas. 

I had to make a decision in the hustle and bustle that is the holiday seaon. I needed to find a save, - a small victory in the mess of a wasted hour-long process that produced no Christmas card and certainly no check-off mark on my December List. 

And so I made peace with the frustration. I accepted the loss. I turned it around in a season that seems to get busier with each passing year. I made peace with the extra money we would now spend on our annual Christmas cards. The money we would spend because I couldn't beat the clock. I couldn't get the week back. I couldn't check one more item off the list.

But I could save the night. I could take back our Sunday Night Sofa Date. 

Christmas will still come. The cards will get done and the presents will be bought and wrapped. The trees will get trimmed. Make peace with all of the frustration and mess and hang-ups that will happen. Focus on the time with your loved ones, forget the calendars and the flashing countdown clocks and savor the moments as best as you can. We won't always be able to get those moments back. 

This morning when I logged back onto Shutterfly, Lo & Behold, they extended the 50% off sale and added an extra 25% percent off on top.
But for today only.
24 hours.
Tis the Season!
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