It's December WHAT?!?!?

I wish I may, I wish I might have one more week till Santa's big night...
Maybe if I click my little red heals together three times and say it...
Or close my eyes and chant the words with my eyes closed, standing on one foot...
Nope. Still here
The twenty-second.
Of December.
Should I do the Home Alone freak-out?
Oh, that I could...I think my downstairs neighbor might take issue with the resulting stomping on our paper-thin floors, though, and I try to stay on her good (read: totally avoid her when at all possible, since she doesn't seem much a fan of anyone who breathes) side.
Anyway. Since I don'r seem to have any say in the time-space continuum, I guess I'm just going to have to deal, and soldier on through my list.
And such a list it still seems to be, even through I've been chunking away at it everyday.
How does that happen?
On the upside, though, I'm not feeling out of touch with Christmas. I'm feeling quite in touch with it, actually. At this point, I think it's begun to breathe down my neck with gingerbread cookie-scented breath. 
Still shopping to to, still ALL of my wrapping to do, still baking supplies to buy and then use.
And the clock marches on.
As the saying goes, time waits for no one, and I think Christmas has even less patience than any other time of year.
HOW DOES THAT HAPPEN?!?
So what to do, what to do?
Well. 
I guess I could self-medicate with the peppermint schnapps, but I prefer sobriety. So my only recourse is this: to remember that this only happens once a year, and that I WILL get everything done that needs to be done. That anything that falls off the list really isn't that important anyway. To realize that this is a celebration of the people in my life and to give them even just a sliver of all the joy that they bring to my life. These gifts are about appreciation, and if they can bring even the barest hint of a smile to the person unwrapping them, I've done my job. And everything that might not have gotten done is––in the long run––is as unnecessary the caroling bass that springs to life every time the front door opens at your Uncle Morty's.   
Slow down, breathe, and remember that this isn't about the rush. It's about showing love to the people who give you so very much. It's about taking a day to remember that we are given much by a God who loves us. It's about bringing joy.
Merry Christmas.