busy days

When I was trying to become pregnant, my only thought was that I wanted to get pregnant as soon as possible, and to deliver a healthy baby.

When I found out I was pregnant, I was ecstatic, of course, and, doing the math, realized that my due date would be around January 14th. A little close to the holidays, I thought, but not too bad. Hey, maybe she'll be born on MLK Jr. Day - that would be pretty cool.

As we got into the early days of December and the baby "dropped" into place (albeit wrong-way-up), I had a feeling that the baby would come by the end of December.

That day was December 26th, to be precise.

So instead of spending this month doing the normal XMAS/Hanukkah shopping and planning, I had to add a first birthday party into the mix. Granted, it's a relatively (and relative-y) small affair, but since it's me, it's a lu'au party with festive decorations and pulled pork and at least 8 3/4 of the 9 yards that crazy people like me "go" in situations like this.

And did I mention that I'm making Beef Wellington and Trifle the night before for dinner?

Oh, and that we'll be spending the first half of 12/25 in Connecticut and then on trains to get back to Forest Hills?

People tell me, "You must be so stressed!" And I guess I should be, but I'm not. (Well, not today - ask me again next week.)

After all, the whole point of the holidays is to near-kill yourself with too much to do/shop for/bake/decorate/mail out. If you're not running yourself ragged for your friends and loved ones, then you just don't care enough.

But that's my standard for myself, you see. I'd never blame anyone else for taking shortcuts. It's simply not in my DNA to do.

This is one of the reasons why "Semi-Homemade Queen" Sandra Lee is my nemesis. But that's for another blog.