It's NOT beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Well, it is 10:09pm on a Tuesday evening.  I sit in my comfiest of chairs, in my comfiest of lounge wear (t-shirt and sweats) surrounded by ornaments and decorations.  Sounds lovely right????? WRONG!!!

Let me start by telling you that I have decor envy of almost everyone I meet.  When I am in their homes, I feel like I wish it was my home.  As if I could just zap their whole decor theme to my home and make it mine.  When I went to visit my most creative, laid back, easy going friend today what do I see in her home?  A BEAUTIFUL, HUGE, Christmas tree.  It must have been at least 12 feet tall.  You should know that she has a huge ceiling, and they have always had a huge tree.  I on the other hand have always had a 6-7 ft tree, and in comparison to my rather compact size, (5 ft 2 inches) it works well for me.  Upon returning to my home, with a bad case of the "I must have Christmas decor nows" I insist that we blow off gymnastics in favor of going to get a tree.  My sweet, smart husband looked at me and said "how about waiting till Sunday?"  My response to that..."NO." 

So off we go to the tree farm to find the perfect tree.  Never mind that the tree farm closes in 30 minutes, or that I should really be making the kids dinner.  We get to the farm with 10 minutes to spare.  I tell my husband and kids, we are going to find a quick tree.  Now, here is where it all becomes my fault.  I see a BEAUTIFUL, HUGE tree, and as you can imagine, I insist that we should get that very one.  My 7 year old says "Mom, it is too big for us, we should get a smaller one."  I think to myself, what does she know, how many Christmases has she celebrated ?  So we cut the monster down, strap it to the hood of the white machine and head home. 

In the garage, I look at my husband and ask where the stand is.  He says we threw it away last year (why would we do that?) and that we need to purchase a new one.  Off I go to the store to get one.  You may or may not know that I live in the sticks, and there is no Home Depot/Walmart/Target nearby, so the options are pretty slim.  I find a stand that is supposed to handle up to a 10 foot tree.  I return home, and we begin the process of shoving the tree into the stand.  Bad scene.  We actually talked about filling up a bucket with sand, and then putting the Christmas tree stand in it.  By the way, neither of us are very smart.  4 hours later, the tree is not up, it sits in a bucket outside, and it may go up on Sunday.  It is NOT beginning to look a lot like Christmas. 

So this is it.

So I decided that maybe now I will  have time to blog about my daily adventures.  As I am trying to find something witty and charming to say, maybe even funny, K comes in to tattle on M (her older sister.)  When I very calmly inform her that she has already used her one tattle of the day (a newly instituted rule) she flat out loses it.  She then proceeds to tell me that she hates me and thinks I am stupid. 

Now before you all gasp in shock..."Sweet K? Maybe she was just tired, or over-stimulated" you are thinking.  News Flash....K is mean, really, really mean.  She has morphed into the dreaded 4 year old, full of anger and frustration, and about 6 months away from the calm that comes at the end of year 4.  As K is screaming (I gave her a time out...really just torture for me, because she is screaming about 5 feet away) I think to myself so this is it...this is what my life is all about right now.

Now don't get me wrong, this is not a rant.  It is however the truth.  My life is all about kids losing it, crying, throwing fits, spilling milk, barfing in their carseats, hustling them to school and activities, laundry and cleaning, listening to the irrational demands of a 4 year old, and trying to convince them to calm down and make the right choice. 

My life is also about the good things too...but we just heard K scream from the back room "I hate everyone in this family".  Maybe I need to go handle that!