>Ye Olde Holiday Rat Race

I have this fantasy, in which the days leading up to Christmas are spent cuddling with my children, sitting by a warm fireplace, drinking hot cocoa and homemade cookies, reading Christmas books and watching Christmas movies on television.

Notice I used the word “fantasy.”

The reality, unfortunately, is that since Thanksgiving, I’ve been running around like, well, a mom before Christmas. And looking at my calendar, I don’t see any opportunity to slow my pace until we reach the day itself.

There are parties to host and attend, cookies to bake, Santa photos to be made, Christmas carol CDs to burn, living nativities to walk through, trees to decorate, gifts to order and purchase and wrap, Nutcracker ballets to watch, holiday events to drive to, a house and yard to decorate, special meals to prepare, Christmas crafts to make with Punky, and on top of that, my own regular work isn’t letting up one bit. I’m still home schooling Punky each day and writing and writing and writing. And I’ve lost my twice-weekly babysitter to a student teaching job. So yeah. You could say I’m feeling a little bit overwhelmed.

In fact, for the first time ever, I’m secretly looking forward to December 26th. God help me. I’ve turned into a benevolent, well-meaning Scrooge.

My solution is to plan better for next year. Today, I’m making a Christmas 2009 document, to remind myself of all I want to do during the next holiday season, so that I can look at it some time in October and start preparing.

Also? I’m writing a letter to whomever is in charge of holidays and asking him (for it MUST be a him, right? A woman wouldn’t have done this) to give us a little more time between Thanksgiving and Christmas to prepare. Because seriously. I need at least a week longer to get everything done.

Wish me luck and I’ll do the same for you.

This post originally appeared on Parents.com.