TIs the season to be WHAT?

Yes I think the song goes Tis the season to be jolly, but I am just not feeling it this year. My weekend was not very good to say the least. I will give you a quick rundown of the good, bad, and the stressful.

I volunteer with my former church to sponsor a weekend lunch team, which once a quarter prepares and serves a meal to the homeless and hungry in our town. This is something that I truly do enjoy doing. I love to cook, although I must admit that cooking for 100 people is quite different than cooking for a family of 3. People from the church are supposed to volunteer to come and help with the preparations and serving. Lots of work goes into preparing a meal for so many people. I really like our meals to be special because this may be the only meal that these people are eating that day. So on the weekends that our team prepares the meal, I meet my co-sponsor at the church kitchen on Friday night to plan the menu and do some prep work, like thawing meats, etc.

Once the menu was planned I had to rush home and change clothes and get my family ready because we had tickets to the Theatre to see our towns production of ANNIE. Dressing my family is stressful. My child has long hair and I have no clue what to do with it. I have short hair for a reason. I hate to fix hair. Finally they were all dressed and in the car. Oops she says I need my jacket, it is cold out here. Okay she should have been getting all this stuff together before we get in the car, but she is 7, what can I say? After my husband and I both go into the house running from room to room looking for her stupid jacket, we have no luck, the jacket is nowhere to be found. I return to the car with the bad news and assure her that we will not let her freeze to death the few minutes that we will be out of the car. We finally get there in one piece and the show was fantastic. I love musicals. If I had a better voice and was more coordinated I would love to do theatre, but since I am not talented in those respects I just enjoy watching. That was the best part of my weekend and it was all down hill from there.

I woke up very early on Saturday morning to get to the church to prepare the meal for Saturday, we serve the meal at 12, so we get started around 10 with the cooking. Before I could go to the church I needed to run by the store and grab a few things that we needed for the meal. Well turns out the town that I live in is having their parade at 10 that morning, so I have to fight my way through the streets and find a new route to the store because the route I would normally go is the parade route and all the streets are blocked off. I hate parades! I finally make it to the store and the church all the while cursing and complaining. I just was not in the best mood. So I get to the church and get more bad news, the youth group isn't coming to help. WONDERFUL, just wonderful. So we have 5 people, including myself to prepare a meal for 100 people, serve it, clean up, you get the idea. There is a lot to do when you have plenty of help, it is a nightmare when you don't have enough help. But we all got in the kitchen and pulled the meal together, and it was delicious and the homeless people were happy. I baked a homemade peach cobbler and it was the star of the meal. Those people just raved about it, which made me feel good. I like to make people happy, especially with my cooking.

After I left the church I had to run home and clean up the back deck and yard of my house because the landlord was coming over to change our locks. The patio was at least an inch thick in leaves and pinestraw. My child did help me clean it up. We had to pretend that we were orphans from ANNIE and sing Hard Knock Life while we raked and swept the leaves and pinestraw into a pile.

Then we had to pick out our Christmas Tree. I normally enjoy this, but for whatever reason our child was being a bratty little miss know it all and in my family I am the only one allowed to be that. So after walking around looking at all the Christmas trees there, we finally found one and convinced her that it was the best tree there. I thought I would just scream if I had to hear about the 9 1/2 foot tree at her mom's one more time, which my husband has seen and he said it is tall but it is skinny. I just wanted to scream!!!!!! We get the tree all netted up and ready to go home and of course the trunk of my car is full of clothes to donate to charity. So when I go to pick up the big black trash bag full of clothes the bag busts and all the clothes start spilling out all over the ground. Can you feel my stress level beginning to rise???My husband and child just thought it was hilarious. I on the other hand, was not amused the least little bit. I really felt a tantrum coming on. I was trying to breathe deep breaths and count, but that doesn't always work. So I calmly went around to the front of the car and got in and closed my door. My hubby picked up the clothes and put them back in to the car so we could get the freakin tree home. Believe it or not it made it there in one piece, except for all its little needles that remain in the trunk of my car. After we rearranged the living room we got the tree into it's stand and it is just beautiful. We wrapped a few gifts and I was anxiously counting down the hours until we got to take her home, so I could whine about my foot hurting and have all my husbands attention. About 15 minutes before we have to leave to take her home I hear him dialing the telephone. So I kindly ask him who is he calling. He informs me that she wants to spend the night again and he is calling her mom. Not that I mind if she spends every night with us, but give me a break, at least run it my me. So there go my chances at any pampering. I went to bed shortly after that. My foot was hurting, my back aching and my feelings crushed, I cried myself to sleep.

Sunday was no better and I will spare you most of the details. We had 4 people Sunday to fix lunch for 100. We got it done, but I was so tired when we left I did not think I would make it home. We did get the lights on the tree, finally at almost midnight last night (which by the way is way past my bedtime on a work night). Why do trees need lights? If I did not like a real tree so much, I would buy a prelit tree and be done with it. Tonight we get to put on the ornaments and we will be done with it. Maybe I can actually enjoy it once we get it decorated.

I am just so stressed out that I can't be jolly this season, but I am working on it. As Annie so wonderfully sings, the sun will come out tomorrow...