Your Last Minute Preparations 10 Days Before Christmas

10 Days: The you scurry about to get lights and other last minute decorations that are now on sale because you thought you had plenty of time before Christmas, but you got a wakeup call that morning when they looked at the calendar!

9 Days: Decorating day! The day before was too exhausting after the fights in Walmart for the sets of lights. You wake up well rested with a bit of anxiety, but you are ready! You get on  your ladder, fall off  the ladder, just the usual. After the cries of frustration from the half-lit lights you thought would still work from last year, and the big hole in the blowup snowman, you give up and leave your sub-par lights and are done with the day. 'Not too shabby' you think.

8 Days: It is relaxing day. Your back is aching from the misadventures of decorating your yard. You smile when you get the mail, and get back inside to work in there. You decide that the tree needs more decorations, for you were a little lazy and tired the day after Thanksgiving while decorating. You go into the attic and get your old box of ornaments. You have pictures from the good days and you take a trip down memory lane. That takes you about 3 hours because you relive each Christmas in your mind, and it makes you more excited for when you get to go see your kids for Christmas. It is late and you are tired, so you call it quits for the day.

7 Days: You wake up with the shock of 'OMG, Christmas is in a week!' You decide to decorate the rest of your house. You go back to the attic, and get all of your little Christmas trinkets that you out out every year. A little garland here, a little tinsel on the doorways, along with your little mistletoe. You smile to yourself when you are finished putting it up. After that you put your last few little figurines around and your house is looking cute and festive. Considering you slept late that day, your day ends fairly quickly, and you are ready to relax until tomorrow.

6 Days: You sit and make your lists. All or you children, parents, aunts, uncles, and other friends and relatives are on the list and you put down what you are going to get them. You then sit down with all of the circulars from the past week. You sit down, and start couponing. when you are done sorting them out, you continue to read through the adds to see who has what on sale. It takes hours as you can imagine and your eyes are burning. You put all that you are keeping aside, and set it as tomorrow's plight.

5 Days: You put on your game face as you wake up. You eat and extra filling breakfast so that you do not shop hungry. This was a great decision. You put on comfy clothes and your best running sneakers, and you run out the door. You are halfway to Walmart when you realize you forgot the lis and coupons. You face-palm yourself and 'bang-a-uie' (*a term more people from the north of the U.S. say, my mom always says it) (means to turn around) you are back home, make sure you have everything this time, and head back to the store. It is a madhouse of crazed people running around like they had not been prepared! There is about one of everything and you cheer to yourself every time you get the last one. After a hasty little war over the cute sweater you wanted for your niece with an old lady, you bring all of your trophies and a slightly stretched sweater to the checkout line. You have been proven successful. AND in the process, you saved $23.45, so the day before had not been a total waste.

4 Days: A little sore from the day before, you get ready do do it again. You decided that you would make food shopping and present shopping on different days because you would not be able to fit ALL of that in your little Punch Buggy. You throw on the same clothes from before because hey, why the heck not? You set back out to Walmart with the remaining food coupons, ready for your last day of shopping. You rush through the store like a crazed maniac because you just want to get it over with, and people give you funny looks. You double check your list and head to to checkout line. After smiling at the all to familiar cashier, and five minutes of bagging and scowls from the line of people behind you, you push the cart to you car and drive away. You smile with your saving from today being $12.56. Not as good as yesterday, but better than saving nothing! You go home, put everything away, and pass out after a quick dinner.

3 Days:You decide to give all of you family a call to make sure they know that you are coming. They decide to move the meeting to your Aunt Suzi's house, which is literally about 2 hours away, instead of about one hour to your mom's. You sigh and go on google maps. You sit there, plan out your trip, and decide to pack your bags early. You pack everything you need, clothes, presents, everything! It takes a while to wrap all of the presents, but finally after an few taped fingers, and unwrapping one gift to retrieve you accidentally wrapped phone, you decide to start the food prep. You marinade the ham and do quick prep for the full cooking tomorrow. After you long day of prepping, you are tired and relax for tomorrow.

2 Days: It is cooking day! You cook everything now so it is a fresh as possible for Christmas. You bake tons of cookies, make you famous green bean casserole and sweet potato mash with mini marshmallows,  it is late and you are having hot-flashes from the hot oven. You throw on cool clothes and head on the bed, knowing all the food is prepped. you are tuckered out and amped for everyone to eat this food!

1 Day: Its Christmas eve!!! You wake up in a worried rush! You wake up, and get everything in the car. You pack all of the food, presents, and barley manage to put all of this in you little Punch Buggy. You head to the nearest gas station, steal a few cookies from one of the tins, and drive the expected 2 hours all the way to Aunt Suzi's house. You bop you head around to 'Rockin Around the Christmas Tree' and make to best of it. About 3 hours later you get there, stressed from all of the holiday traffic, but it all melts away as you walk in the door. The instant feeling of warmth and love surround you and you know that the past 10 crazy days have been worth it!You smile as you hug every relative, and help set the table.

0 Days: It is Christmas! You made it! All turned out well, and the worst thing you got out of all this was an ugly reindeer sweater made from your Grandma Bessie. Yeah, it is tacky, but it turned out to be one of the best Christmases ever! :)

The End.... (Until next year! ;)  )