Party Favors

Our foyer is now filled with party favors for this coming weekend's Christmas Open House. I spent about three hours this afternoon putting the finishing touches on all the baskets and gift bags filled with holiday goodies. To make certain that no one leaves empty-handed, I've got an array of gifts.... Christmas books, scented candles, datebooks for the new year, CDs of holiday music, pretty jars of mixed nuts, different varieties of fruit jams with holiday spreaders tied to the jars, Christmas neckties for the men, holiday cookie cutters and colored sprinkles for the ladies who bake, and bright Christmas-red nail polishes for those who don't. I've got trendy gifts for teenagers, coloring books & crayons and storybooks & stuffed animals for little kids. A little something for everyone, and of course, special gifts in marked bags for special friends.

This is what takes most of the time.... it isn't the grocery shopping, it isn't the baking, it isn't the cleaning--- it's the details. But, as the saying goes, love is in the details. So I must have a lot of love to give, because I am constantly, consistantly, never-endingly minding the details.

As usual, we had a few little problems with the outside lights this year. The lights have only been up for three days...... and wouldn't you know it, one strand went out. My husband fixed that early this morning. Then this evening, we found half a strand that wouldn't light up. And it's a brand new strand, for goodness sake! I heard the famous phrase from my husband that I hear every year: "Next year we're Jewish... no lights, just a few candles." (These words from the same man who spends countless hours making authentic British plum pudding every December.)

I don't even want to think too hard about Christmas Day yet. Just let me get through this party on Saturday night. As it is, I've got half a dozen things going on at once: Saturday's party, plus my husband's birthday dinner next week (but the favors are done for that, and so are the placecards), Christmas gifts are wrapped and those placecards are done also, then we have New Year's Eve-- favors and placecards and table decorations are done for that as well.

Okay, so maybe it's not as bad as I think it is. I seem to be ahead of myself, at least for the next couple of weeks. Although, I haven't yet decided what I'm going to wear on Saturday night, so I'd better get into my closets and see what looks good and/or feels good. Never know from day to day... what feels good on a Monday may not feel good on Friday. My husband will get dressed in five minutes for the party-- black slacks, black socks/shoes, a green or a red shirt, Christmas tie. He'll look at me and say "Done!" (He does the same thing when he packs a suitcase for 10 days in six minutes.)

And me? If you can't find me, I'm either in my closet standing in front of the racks and just looking up and down or side to side, or I'm in the dressing room tossing outfits on top of the vanity and asking the mirror: "Now what on earth were you thinking when you bought that?!"