Testing my resolve

This year, I decided to go simple with my New Year's Resolutions.  No insane, unattainable goals (run a marathon in June!  lose 50 pounds!), but simple things, like start counting calories again, exercise more, drink more water, cut down to only one pot of coffee a day.  I also resolved to be more patient with my husband and son, and to try to not stress about little things so much.

I almost broke all of my resolutions January 1st.

The first issue was that the first day of the new year fell on Sunday.  Which meant that, instead of sleeping in and having a lazy day off from work, I had to get my butt in gear to get to church.  And I had to do all this without my typical morning pot of extra-strong black coffee.

When I got to church, it became obvious that my resolutions about patience and not stressing so much were going to be tested.  We were low on volunteers for children's church (because, duh, New Year's), so we were going to have to combine all three classes:  nursery, preschool, and elementary.

The end result was myself and three other volunteers being responsible for 21 kids.

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We do Christmas right...

Everyone may be picking out costumes and getting their candy ready for trick-or-treaters, but in my house, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

To explain, there are two things you should know about me: 1.) I love the holidays. 2.) I hate crowds.

From October 1st until New Year's Day, I am a happy woman.  As much as I hate shopping for myself, I love buying gifts for other people, and I spend hours at the mall, stores, and on shopping websites, getting ideas, making lists, and comparing prices.  I want to find the perfect gift to put a big, genuine smile on the recipient's face when they open their present.

But I despise crowds, particularly when I'm in my gift-shopping happy place, so it's imperative that I get all of my gifts bought weeks before Black Friday.

I also just love the time with my family, whether it's taking my son trick-or-treating with his cousins, or having everyone stuff our faces together on Thanksgiving.  I love the complete pandemonium that is a Christmas Day with a ton of people and kids underfoot.  I love Christmas Eve services with my church family.  I love the food, and the hot chocolate, and stockings, cheesy holiday movies and the way Christmas trees smell, and just everything about the entire Holiday season.

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Shameless Plug!: Fedex custom calendars will keep the grandparents from complaining about how rarely you call!

This is just going to be a quick one, but I have to tell you about these awesome custom calendars we got for all the grandparents this year. You just go to FedEx.com , and they have hundreds of design options for you to choose from. Then, you just upload the 12 (or 13, if you want something different for the cover) pictures you want them to use for each month. You can even add custom holidays to the calendars. (We added all of the kids' anniversaries and all the kids' and grandkids' birthdays.)

You can get the wall calendars for just under twenty bucks apiece, and there are also tons of other customizable products available. And because it's FedEx, they arrive crazy fast, even if you don't choose to upgrade the shipping. (We designed and ordered ours on a Sunday night and they arrived that Tuesday.)

These calendars are perfect for if you're on a holiday budget, or if you have a relative that would really love some pictures of the kids. Also great presents for if you delayed in your shopping and you're in a hurry. I know it's past the Christmas season, but it's still early enough in the year that it's worth it if you want to get a calendar for yourself.

And just a remind about the "Shameless Plug" posts: I am not getting paid a dime from any of these companies to endorse this stuff. The "Shameless Plug" titles are meant as a joke. These are all just products that I genuinely love and which have made my life easier.