Meredith Carson... Across the Pond and Back Again...

I have been doing a bit (and hearing a bit) of Christmas griping lately.  I will admit that I was annoyed when the Christmas music was playing on the radio and in the stores well before Thanksgiving.  I have bristled at the Christmas-themed commercials on television telling me and my children that we need to go out and buy holiday-scented toilet paper, battery-operated, musical earmuffs, and the like.   I have rebelled against my own Christmas-loving nature since I do not like to have commercialized Christmas jammed down my throat before I've even had time to properly digest the Halloween candy that I stole from my kids' trick-or-treat bags. But today felt different since a somewhat unexpected winter storm converged upon us last night.  When we woke up, it looked like this in my front yard... School was delayed two hours, so there was extra time for morning chit-chat, hot breakfasts and crawling back into bed with our resident-little squirt to watch Blue'...

Someone needs to tell my local super center and radio station that it was Halloween less than a week ago.  You all know that I love Christmas and Christmas music, but with the non-stop Christmas music already playing on the radio and Christmas products lining every inch of available store space, I will be downright sick of Christmas before December even gets here.  As D'andre Cole would say, "What Up With That?"  Be where you are, people, and right now we are in the midst of a beautiful autumn.  There is still Thanksgiving and pumpkin pie to look forward to before the fat man thinks about coming down your chimney or the plastic baby Jesus gets placed tenderly in the manger in your front yard. So here is a reminder: instead of hearing those sleigh bells jingling, ring-ting-tingling too, THIS is what you should  be doing right about now...

Life will never be perfect again. I was fooling myself all along when I thought I could make things just right, but that is my nature. I tend to make lists and plan out how everything should go on special occasions... much like Will Ferrell's character in Elf: "First we'll make snow angels for two hours, then we'll go ice skating. Then we'll eat a whole roll of Tollhouse cookie dough as fast as we can, and then...we'll snuggle!" But this year with three children, I have officially had to let go of my inner perfectionist. I let go of the lists of things that are supposed to happen at Christmastime and just went with the flow. This year's gingerbread house (pictured above) was entirely kid-created, apart from a little help with the assembly from our resident engineer. Honestly, I think it's the happiest-looking gingerbread house we've ever had. Also, there just wasn't time to make the traditional Christmas cookies this year with every...

Today was school Christmas concert day... Everyone knows that I love Christmas. I also love teachers and appreciate all that they do for the children of our world, so I will try to carefully word what I am about to write. I will try to avoid sounding like a Humbug. Here goes... I am really fed up with all of the busy-ness that has accompanied this year's Christmas. I am sick of fighting crowds. I am sick of the obligations that my children now have since they are both in school...and am dreading what everyone has warned me about....that it will only get worse as they get older. I long for the days when I had pre-schoolers and the only thing I was obligated to do with my children was feed and love them. There was so much more time to play and make a fuss over little things. There was time to leisurely bake cookies and sit and draw pictures. Now I feel like we are constantly rushing off to something, and I do not like it one bit. So...my conscious and determined goal for the rest of ...