the most wonderful time of the year?

now that Christmas is only two weeks out the holiday stress is probably starting to creep in. it's amazing really when you think about it. the shopping, the planning & organizing, not to mention the fact that if you have a job you still have the daily stress of that. some people i know get depressed about not having any snow...like you can control that? anyway, i'm fairly certain my Christmas shopping is done, as we made some honest efforts to downsize the gift-giving part this year. the lights are on the house, we have our christmas cards ready to write & send (a fairly large task that is not yet complete), christmas tree purchased and resting in the back yard until we have time to actually plant it in the living room, so things are happening. next week relatives will arrive from out of town which will no doubt add to the business. here's a quick look at this week, thursday is allie's birthday, plus my kids advent service at school (which alaina has the part of "Mary"), followed by celebrating allies' birthday on friday and our annual Christmas party on saturday, not to mention the fact that things at work are in a year-end frenzy. i know i'm not alone in this but i think the key is too focus on the moment and enjoy it and not insist on perfection. a hallmark Christmas season is just not gonna happen. i found a few tips that is supposed to help ease the holiday stress. maybe there's something there we all could use?