the Christmas rush and some baking

Besides eating {a lot of} cookies, doing endless Physics as well as some government, and finishing up drivers ed (it turns out that I can get my license now! *dies of excitement*), Christmas break has been laid-back so far. It's been nice. And the dozens of cookies my mom has been baking? Yeah, definitely a factor. I wanted to be the helpful, baking-adept daughter, but I had to try and make some Physics headway instead. That, and I'm usually pretty incompetent/blundering in the kitchen. My mom once said that she prays I find a husband that can cook... She was joking, but not too far off. Ahh well. I love food, so I suppose I'll just have to force myself to be good at making it. :)

I have been confronted with the realization that, no, Christmas isn't still months away and, no, I don't have plenty of time to finish up all my Christmas gift shopping/creating/wrapping. I really and truly only have several more days left! Time flies by so much quicker than when we were little kids. Or is it just me?

So now, I only have one more day to finish all of my Christmas preparations. The day after tomorrow we're visiting my grandpa in Townsend, Tenessee (Never heard of it? Yeah, most people haven't), and on Christmas Eve we're heading down to Greenville to eat food/celebrate/go caroling my uncle, aunt, and some cousins. Then we're heading back to North Carolina to spend Christmas day and home, and then driving down to Florida to visit more family. 

Sometimes keeping up with this time of year is a struggle. There's so much to do and so many friends and family to see in so little time, so many traditions, so much commercialization, and so many people stressing and rushing--trying to simply "get through" the holidays. Sometimes I have to slow down, block out all of the noise and busy-ness, and remember what it's all about. But you know what? I love Christmas. :)

I hope your week is going spendidly!

--Rachel