Can it not already be the end of December? Now, don’t get me wrong. This year hasn’t been roses and friggin’ ponies, and many of the events are definitely not on my “Gee, let’s do that again” list.

But c’mon!!! I have four batches of cookie dough in my fridge, two more about to get started, a pile of Christmas cards reaching up to my hips that need to get finished. And do not even get me started on the amount of gift shopping I need to get done.

I just want another week to feel like a human being before diving into the holiday madness. Is that too much to ask for?

And of course, just because I don’t have enough to be doing, my muse decides it’s time for me to finish the two projects I have 3/4 done.

Sure, why not? Who needs sleep anyway, right?

But with all joking aside, this will be the first Christmas without my mother. It seemed strange not to call her while mixing the cookies, just to reminisce about all the years of silly cookie mistakes. Laugh about the time we forgot to put the molasses in the molasses cookies or when the oven was set on the wrong temperature and the cut cookies ended up like hockey pucks.

I remember helping my mom decorate the tree the first Christmas after we lost my dad. I held her while she cried. This year, Christmas is a little sadder, the ornaments holding some of my fondest childhood memories now hanging on my little tree. I tell myself that they are now together and I take solace in that.

But that doesn’t make it any easier.

Hold your loved ones close and never miss an opportunity to tell them you love them.

Happy Holidays, one and all