Where does the time go?

I love this time of year. I hate this time of year. I run around like an idiot with my head cut off, never get everything done, try and have as much fun with the kids as possible and try not to lose my mind in the process. Sound familiar? So far I have all of the indoor decorations up. This weekend I plan on getting the outdoor decorations up, weather permitting. I need to start wrapping gifts, finish buying gifts, and start my holiday baking. Last year I bought truffles and caramels from Sweet Hope, but this year I am on a tighter budget. I am going to try and make my own (hopefully edible) holiday goodies. 

A friend gave us a bucket of Crayola air-drying craft clay. I rolled out some of it and Levi helped me use cookie cutters to cut out bear shapes. We let them dry and today we used non-toxic craft paints to decorate them. (OK, decorate is used very loosely here. They mostly buried the bears under layers of paint all mixed together. Hopefully it will dry before too many weeks....)Once the paint is dry I have glitter glue to add accents and then I will seal them with clear sealer. I will add hanging cords and the kids (my two plus the two little ones who our nanny also watches) will have some keepsake ornaments to decorate their trees.

I got shirts for all 4 little ones and some red washable fabric paint, googly eyes and big round bells. We used the red paint to dip their foot in to make the face of a Reindeer and their hand prints as the antlers. Once the paint dried I glued googly eyes (using washable fabric glue) on and added a bell for the nose. Voila, holiday keepsake shirts! 

I bought 2 ginger bread house kits. One for Levi and one for Ahren. Once we make them the boys will be allowed to nibble, nibble, nibble on their respective houses until Christmas. Each time I notice they have been nibbled, I use my best witchy voice and ask aloud, 'Nibble, nibble, nibble, who has been nibbling at my house' just like in hansel and gretel. This is sure to elicit much giggling and even more nibbling. 

This year we are doing something different. The economic crisis has us worried and doing our best to cut back. I usually go overboard with gifts for the kids. I shop the sales, get free shipping and score great deals, but I still do a lot. So this year, Chris is in charge of all the buying for the kids and me. I get to buy for my folks, the kids' gifts for Chris, the mail person, newspaper delivery, etc. He has the rest. Oh, and I will do the stockings. At first this seemed like a brilliant idea to me. It freed me up to just enjoy the season. But here it is, 3 weeks from the big day and he hasn't bought one single thing (or so he says) I am totally freaking out. I would be almost done by now. I would have lists of each child's gifts, a tally of the money spent, the exact same number of packages to open for the two boys, the exact same number of packages for the two girls (less than the boys because their gifts are more expensive) stockings figured out, wrapping begun, etc etc. The magic of the holidays means so much to me. I work extra hard to keep it alive in our kids. I stress the 'reason for the season', the joy of giving, but also the pure magical aspect of it. I am scared. Really scared. And yet I can't take over or it seems like I don't trust my husband. I should have never given up control of the holiday. I have clearly lost my mind. I think I have control issues.....Lord help me!!!