We're in the end zone...5 more days of school til Christmas break. I'm always amazed at how much gets crammed into the final weeks leading up to Christmas. In the next week or so, Christopher will make an oral presentation on France using all of his geography terms and concepts, Cate will complete dress rehearsal and two performances of the Nutcracker Sweets (shortened version of the Nutcracker -- Cate is dancing the Russian dance this year), Cate will perform in an Aesop's Fables play at school, Christopher and I will bake 2 dozen gingerbread cupcakes for his class, Greg will travel to Seattle and back, and somehow I'll finish up all the Christmas shopping. Oh -- and I'll finish some deadlines for my work project.

We're almost there. It is truly my goal to get through all the "slog" of Christmas by the end of next week so that we can just sit back and enjoy the last few days before Christmas. I want to spend those days listening to Christmas carols and baking and inviting friends over for tea and cookies. We'll make it.

In the meantime, we'll take some breaks along the way to enjoy the season. Tonight -- family date night with "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and a tub of popcorn. We've also started some of the Christmas baking -- we've made pumpkin bars and caramel corn in the last week or so. I'm hoping for Gingerbread cookies in the near future.