Eeeek!! It's the Holidays Already!?!

Can you say "OVERWHELMED"? The Holidays have snuck (is that a word?) sneaked up on me AGAIN!

But, before I get into all that, let's have a moment of praise and thanksgiving for my sister-in-law Sandy, her daughter Amy, and my Billy--(moment...moment...moment). You'll understand why shortly.

See...I haven't decorated--I mean FULLY decorated my house for Christmas in 5 years. So I'm due right? Yes, it's time.

But I'm realizing now...I should have planned better!! (any of you who know me are laughing heartily right now because you know I really AM a 'last minute kinda girl'--sigh).

Well, I decided that THIS year I'M DECORATING! All out decorating. And, because I'm a crazy girl, (what was I thinking???) I'm going to have my family here for Christmas AND have a cookie swap for my girlfriends.

But hey, I'm feeling no pressure. Because I started planning all this over a month ago so there should have been plenty of time right?

WHATEVER!!!

HOLY COW!! The time went by so danged fast!!

Before I knew it it was December 9th and I hadn't done a thing to decorate for my party on the 16th!

Time to call in the cavalry!!

"Hello, Sandy?"

"Are you busy for the next seven days?"

"Wanna' come out of your comfy little world of calmness and order into the land of chaos?"

"Wait--what?"

"You would?!?"

"Seriously?"

"Yessssss!!!"

We rushed right out into the Oklahoma Ice Storm of the Century to pick her up.

Imagine her dismay when she arrived to THIS... (I didn't get pictures of the worst of the mess--these are the 'nice' pics)

But what miracle workers we are!

After 40+ Rubbermaid tubs from storage and too many boxes to count from the attic--WE DID IT!!!

We worked at the store all day and came home to decorate in the evenings.

On Friday we drove to OKC to pick up my niece Amy so she could come help us finish up--(Couldn't have done it withoutcha' Ame!). We had a few 3 am mornings but it all came together just in time for the cookie swap on Sunday.

We didn't get to decorate outside but, hey! there's always next year (I'll have plenty more time 'cause I may just leave all this up so I don't have to go through this again--grin)

Anyway...betcha' you're on the edge of your seat waiting to see the finished result aren'tcha? (Drum Rollllllll......)

So...Ta Da!!--(Notice you can see the floors now) Enjoy!! Now, if you'll excuse me...I'm going to take a nap!

Notice the tiny little white tree next to the snowmen? That was our very first Christmas tree on December 23, 1978 (the date we got married 29 years ago). Christmas is never complete without it.