An Accounting of Holiday Preparations

Here's some of what's happened in our house to date as we get ready for the holidays:

• 242 cookies baked
• 144 pretzel hugs made (they're so easy, should have made more)
• 111 or so ornaments hung on our tree
  
• 107 cookies eaten. No, make that 108 as I drop crumbs on my desk here.
• 68 presents bought
• 29 cards and 53 Christmas letters mailed. Ok, I've still got 5 on my desk, but I'm almost there.
• 6 1/2 hours waiting for the piano tuner to finish so we could sing Christmas Carols at home
• 5 presents made, 2 or 3 more to go
• 5 stockings hung by the chimney
• 2 packages sent. Did I miss somebody? I hope not because it's too late now!
  
• 2-plus hours waiting to see Santa (we don't do this every year. I have a 5-year old who really wanted to go and ask the man some questions. Questions were answered and requests noted. Thankfully you get to pass notes to the downtown Naperville Santa who deflects requests for Nintendo DS and American Girl dolls that won't be showing up under the tree).
• Zero cozy fires in the fireplace, but hopefully one will be crackling tonight for our small group dinner
• Countless readings of the Luke 2 account of Christ's birth. I am remembering the reason for the season while doing all the above!

This is just in case anyone's been wondering what I've been up to lately. To quote from a favorite radio show: "Not much. You?"