Caren's Big Thoughts

Gearing Up For the Holidays

It is one week before Christmas. The time of year I always look around and wonder, "What have I gotten myself into?" Thanks to my husband and kids, the tree is up and has lights. Thanks to me, it has a few ornaments. I tried to institute a rule over the weekend that whoever passes through the den must put an ornament (or four) on the tree. So far, I'm the only one who has done so (though the girls have thrown a few up there).

I have managed to squeeze in Christmas shopping here and there, on my lunch break, in the evenings, and between dropping off and picking up my middle schoolers. I was incredibly grateful, I recall, when my son began driving himself around. Although he had to get on the beltline to get to his high school, the worry was worth it! Only 2-1/2 years until the next one is driving. Woot!

I have our annual Christmas dinner and gift exchange tonight with my wonderful and talented friends: Sabrina Jeffries, Liz Carlyle, Claudia Dain and Debra Bess. We have extra fabulously exciting news to celebrate tonight. As of Friday, Debra Bess is now a Harlequin Mills & Boon author!! Although, as a fellow aspiring writer it might seem that envy or self-pity would be natural reactions to Debbie's success, in fact I am nothing besides thrilled and proud. She is a wonderful writer and deserves her success! You will be glad to know her book is headed into production now and is scheduled to be a November 2007 release under her new pen name Deb Marlowe. I'll be sure to let you know when it's available! Meanwhile that leaves me as the sole unpublished member of the Biaggi's Bunch. Must keep working on that.

I managed to get all the gifts wrapped in time for this celebratory soiree. Also to get gifts wrapped for a couple of special teachers at the middle school, to help daughter number 1 to assemble gift bags for her friends and to make daughter number 2 clean the kitchen, since she baked cookies for her friends. It is sometimes a challenge to be the mother of a chef-in-training. Especially since culinary school is still five years off!

I am sure Christmas will be wonderful, just like always. Immediately afterward, I will begin to panic about New Year's Eve. Yes, you guessed it, we are having a party. My dear friend Suse and I were disgruntled about never getting invitations to any parties until we realized none of our friends ever had parties. So we decided to have one last year and make it a tradition. Only now her beloved father is ill and she may not even be at the party. Which leaves me to scurry about and make sure everything gets done. Panic!

The good news is, my darling Liz Bemis is coming to town for the party. Yay! The world's best handyman, Steve Gatewood is at my house today, installing new (desperately needed) lighting fixtures I rushed out and bought yesterday. My husband and I have been scrambling to clean out the attic so we will have space to store things we clean out of the dining room. It's a Catch-22 for us with the cleaning, but we're making headway.

In two weeks, Christmas will be over, New Year's Eve will be upon us, and (hopefully) our house will hardly be recognizable. Anyone else hoping for a "new" house for the New Year?

posted by Caren Crane @ 2:38 PM