Like clockwork I reached down on the floor beside my bed for the phone, somewhere around five this morning. When I leaned back up, I had that swimmy feeling I get when my ears get full during allergy season. 

Feeling kind of lousy this morning, I made little progress in the areas where I'm already behind; housecleaning, shopping...

And then there were the mixture of events I needed to sort out for tonight. There was the church dinner at five. I remembered that the Christmas Sunday school party at six (that our youngest would be attending) would be at another location. At this same time our older daughter would be enjoying her youth Christmas party. And I had an engagement that I had previously thought would be this past Monday until I chatted with the hostess who reminded me that it was tonight. 

Only the party wasn't at six. It's at 8:15. 

I found that out by knocking on the door approximately two hours and sixteen minutes early. 

I walked back to my car with my head hung (just low enough as to not get nauseous from ear fluid) and I couldn't find my keys. I checked the ignition. I checked my purse. I checked under the seat where I pulled out an old wicker basket, an empty Ziploc container and all the pens that are missing from the house.  I checked the coin trays and frantically dumped my purse, not wanting the hostess to see that I was still parked in the driveway one hour and fifty-five minutes early. 

No luck. 

With no other choice, I got out of my car and turned on the flashlight on my phone. I went back and knocked on the door to let the party planner know I'd lost my mind and my keys (I find it less humiliating to announce my ridiculousness rather than let people discover it for themselves.)

Party planner's husband, whom I just realized I forgot to thank, came out to assist me. I did find my car key in the yard in no time (after looking in the car for twenty minutes). It's a miracle considering it's a single key in a yard full of my favorite leaves (the large-ish kind). 

I'm waiting now for the real party to start. 

Lucky for you, that means I have time to tell you about last Friday's party when I decided that I needed dark stretchy pants to wear with the boots I had on. I took a pair from one of the girl's closets.  They fit. That made me happy. I made my rounds at the party extending greetings and finding out what everybody's Christmas plans were.  

As Jason and I got in the car to leave, I felt a cold spot about the size of a half dollar where my inner thigh was touching the car seat. Perplexed I looked down to find I had a gaping hole in my (daughter's) pants. 

Did I mention I sat on a peanut cluster at church dinner tonight and left a nice dab of chocolate on the seat of my pants? 

I'm having a hard time getting this Christmas thing right. 

And Christmas is the time we most want to do it all right. 

I guess the older (and more in charge) I get I realize just how hard it is to pull off the perfect Christmas. There's the matter of bulging schedules, insufficient funds and dark news. 

There are the thousands of things I can try and get done by (apparently) busting the seam of my pants. Go go go... But I'm so tired. 

Then there are the things I can do little about like the Hatchimal request I found out about from our youngest yesterday when I mentioned them being The Toy to Get -and by that I mean the toy that's near impossible to get). 

I doubt the first Christmas went as planned, well as far as men's plans go. 

In their hearts humans plan their course, but the LORD establishes their steps. Proverbs 16:19

(I'm glad he led me to my keys.)

Here's the thing. 

Christmas is really not so much our party to plan. 

We're attendees and recipients. (Oh come let us adore him.)

Let us be as eager to attend Christ's coming as I've been about this party I've already tried to show up to twice this week.