I'm still here!

The last few weeks have been..., yeah, they've been.  Busy, tiring, slightly stressful.  But that's normal for this time of year.  I've been neck deep in research (final papers are due Monday), and it's nearly the holidays.  Am I ready?  In a word...no. 

One of my friends from work posted pictures of her CHRISTMAS trees on Facebook the other day.  I posted a comment saying that I hated her because I wasn't even ready for Halloween.  THAT'S how behind I feel.  Not one Christmas gift has even been thought about, much less bought.  Decorating?  Haven't given it a thought.  Heck, it just dawned on me earlier this week that NEXT week is Thanksgiving!  Where has this year gone???

For years John would hunt Thanksgiving weekend, so we would come home from Hartselle on Thursday night or Friday morning.  I would decorate everything except for putting up the tree.  We would go, usually on Sunday afternoon, to cut our tree, and then I would decorate it Sunday evening/Monday.  After he stopped hunting, we would usually stay in Hartselle for the entire weekend, and that's when my decorating began to not happen until mid-December.  Since we're not doing a Hartselle Thanksgiving this year, maybe I can get some decorating done next weekend.

This will be the first year in almost forever that we haven't gone to Hartselle for Thanksgiving.  We, as a family, decided to do only one holiday celebration this year halfway between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  The holidays are so, so busy (and they just seem to get busier every year) that we decided to try this to alleviate some of the stress.  Honestly, I'm glad we're doing it this way because it will cut down on the traveling John and I will do.  For months, we've been on the road most every weekend, either to the lake or to his mom's, and I think I will enjoy a couple of days of just hanging around the house.  And even then, we'll still be on the road the day after Thanksgiving because that's when the Alabama-Auburn game is.  BUT we will be home all day Saturday and after church on Sunday.  Even I hope to decorate, I also plan on getting a good start on grading research papers.  (Any volunteers?  No??  Gee, I don't understand why...)

Guess that's it for now.  I'm gonna pop over to tidefans to see what the latest news on the sCam Newton saga is.  You've heard that truth is stranger than fiction?  Well, this is certainly one of those cases.  It is going to be interesting to see how this eventually all plays out.

Have a GREAT day!  I know I will...taking a half day tomorrow so we can go to the Bama-Ga. State game tomorrow night, and then taking Friday off to recover from a late night.  :)