ahhh the holidays

does anyone else get so busy at the holidays they want to scream? i still have soooo much shopping to do, pictures to take for our card, card and letters to assemble, address, and send (no small feat as my main method of organizing addresses is to rip off the return address on cards sent to us and sticking it in a drawer, although i never remember which drawer so several drawers contain hundreds of these little ripped envelopes that flutter around throughout the year and aaron doesn't know this elaborate system of mine so unknowlingly throws many of my "address files" away as garbage), mail packages to those that live far away, attend holiday parties but first run breathlessly through 3 different stores the day of each event in search of something decent to wear, knowing that the Gap has already moved onto their Spring line and won't have anything for we last minute holiday party-goers. and i won't even get into the shoe and panty hose plundering, nightmare! and we have yet to visit Santa, something that kieran is really looking forward to this year and i'm sure andie will hate, aaron and i have yet to narrow down what santa's getting for the kids, and somehow plan a trip without them to look around for ideas (we are now smart enough to know not to take them to the store asking "so, which of these toys would you like?"). and then there's the wrapping. ugh, the wrapping. one of my most dreaded holiday tasks. i'm horrible at wrapping and no matter what i do the gift always ends up looking like a pre-schooler wrapped it, paper transplanted to an area where i cut it too short-surely uncle steve won't notice-or obviously folded and re-folded in several different spots as i miscalculate the folding somehow. at least i can offer, "kieran wrapped this one". hee hee.