When you take your average mum at this time of year you will find that there is a very fine line between quiet busy-ness and silent hysteria. We're up to our neck in cooking, preparing the house for guests, shopping, wrapping - not to mention the mundane washing, ironing, and feeding the family in the days leading up to the big event.
I was bordering on the latter yesterday but now my presents are wrapped and labelled, the cake is iced, there is sufficient food for Christmas Day and if I were to slip on the ice and be confined to the sofa being fed peeled grapes by Dr McDreamy (Patrick Dempsey) himself, Christmas would happen.The husband's contribution to the festivities has consisted of 3 hours of shopping in Cambridge where he bought his parent's presents and a couple of little stocking fillers for the kids. He has written 12 cards for his family members (after I had bought them, printed off the address labels and stuck on stamps). That's it. So this morning when he enquired as to my activities today - cook cherry ring cake, make chocolate biscuit cake, go to Sainsburys for last minute veggies, get all washing and ironing up to date, take my friend to her physio apt (she has trapped a nerve in her spine and is walking hobbling around like an 80 year old), pick her up, cook dinner, deliver gifts and cards to my nephew, then deliver gifts to my niece ........ he then said
"do you think you could wrap up Mum & Dad's presents for me - I'm running out of time"If a middle aged wife should fall in a frenzied heap and no one is around to see, would it make a sound?
Yes it would, it would be a muffled growliness interspersed with hysterical laughter!
On a lighter note, I made a few of these gorgeous triangular boxes that Mel recently showed in a tutorial - they are so cute - well worth the time making them! If you look carefully you will see a tiny silver bell in amongst the ribbon, my signature note for all special presents this year!
8 comments:
oh I am soooo in that silent hysteria and I am not even a mum - I am a frustrated person who has nothing urgent to do work-wise and is stuck at work until tomorrow *slave drivers*, but I have a million things to do at home. I laid the christmas table last week to the dulcet tones of my husband "ohh I hate it when you get like this, super-stressed out and trying to sort things out really early its just ridiculous, christmas isn't until next saturday". I promptly handed him a list of tasks which would help ease the stress and I think he is sorry he opened his mouth now. We're both shattered and I just know the nasty bugs will come to visit when I finish on Friday, I can feel them brewing. My post today is along the same lines as yours!!!!
What is it about the arm's length to do list added on TOP of our normal daily rounds that men fail to understand? Lifetime channel just had a Christmas special about a Mom who went on strike for Christmas and all the other neighborhood Mom's joined her. I only caught snippets of it while I was baking, cleaning, etc. but I think it makes the point.
Anyway, my guy always gets one of the girls to wrap his gifts. You might suggest to DH that you have a couple of able-bodied grown children at home who could help him out!
Breathe, Breathe! Stay Calm, we are nearly there! In a strange way the heavy snow has made us all calmer here - even though not all the presents might get through and some family preparations might have to be postponed. I love that feeling you get by teatime on Christmas Eve when you know all the hard work has been done.
I hear you on the husband thing. Cute but often a bit useless. LOL!
Rinda
Isn't it lucky that every mum is well above average?! I hope you got everything done, and resisted the temptation to giftwrap your husband's head with plenty of sticky tape.... (Or was it just me who thought of that?)
So glad you like the box, it is a great quick and easy make that still looks pretty - the patterned cardstock you've chosen is lovely :-)
Cheri has a good point about roping in the older kids....DD2 is coming round to help bake and clean tomorrow.
My OH wraps presents he's got for me....and that's about it!!
Oh Debs...your household arrangements & DH's contributions mirror mine!!! But there is a difference..my houseguest will no longer be with us & I still have various bags of gifts that won't be delivered until after the big day is past!! So may indeed still be washing & ironing on hristmas eve!! I'm determined to start 2011 with empty laundry baskets!!
I normally get 'if you have 5 minutes, could you....?' and it's always the days where I do NOT have 5 minutes! Love this post Deb! :)
Post a Comment