Post Thanksgiving

Although I can not begin to tell you how excited I am that Thanksgiving is over, just know that I will be even more excited once Christmas is over.
All my life, for as long as I can remember anyway, my mom shopped for Christmas gifts all year. She would stuff and hide it just about every week. I am not even kidding. By her doing this, I would always have tons of gifts and of course I was excited. I loved Christmas...when I was a kid. Now that I have kids of my own...not so much so. Now that my mom has passed away and Christmas was her favorite holiday...not so much so.
I know, having kids of my own, I should probably enjoy it just as much, if not more; seeing their faces light up on Christmas morning, and I do enjoy that aspect, but that is about the only thing I really enjoy about. I seem to get depressed because I can not give my kids the kind of Christmas that my mom, a single parent, always made sure that I had.
I am not new to this mom gig. I have been doing it for 13 years now, and for 13 years I have said, "I'm going to start shopping as soon as Christmas is over" and of course THAT never happens. I typically do not even start shopping until about a week maybe two weeks before the big day, and YES, I am ALWAYS one of those ones who is still out on Christmas Eve buying gifts.
I did not mind Christmas as bad when stores still had lay-away. Walmart did away this until last year, but they only allow you to put certain things on lay-away, and you can't do it all year. Only during the holiday season.
Anyway, I will say it again, I WILL START SHOPPING ALL YEAR LONG FOR CHRISTMAS AS SOON AS THIS CHRISTMAS IS OVER! There is also another plus to this...You always have something on hand for birthdays, be it your own kids birthday, or whatever.

For those who are wondering, the kids were with their dad this weekend, so Stormy, our Elf On The Shelf has not returned, but she will tonight!