Sleigh bells ring, are you list'ning?

Well, we have been trimming the trees (yes, we have more than one) and decking the halls for the past couple of days. Life has been going ninety-miles an hour around here, so it is taking me a little longer than usual to get a handle on Christmas. For example, last week my friend and I made over 300 chocolate dipped caramel pretzels and 100 hand made gift tags for a lady in the neighborhood. It's a little business we have on the side. She orders them every year to give to her faculty at the Junior High. That took about three days. Friday was Bman's big program at school. It's called Images of Greatness. They spend weeks learning about an outstanding person of their choice. They have to do several projects, including a large display board and a bio-riddle. It all culminates in this program, where they dress up as their person and perform their bio-riddle on stage. It is really quite fun. He did a terrific job. I will post pics and details of that later. Anyway, Saturday morning a friend of mine had her third annual cookie exchange. I had to make four dozen cookies for that. Saturday afternoon was the funeral of another neighbor's husband (very sad story). I spent most of the rest of the day helping with that. This week I am helping to head up our church adult Christmas Dinner-it's tomorrow(cross your fingers that it all comes together!) I've been working on the program/slide show presentation for that. Sewing costumes and having rehearsals and such. But, despite all of the hullabaloo, I think we are about done with the Christmas decorating. Now I just need to get S to put all of the empty boxes back into storage for me.
I am starting to get more and more excited about our upcoming referral. I really think we will hear something by the end of February at the latest. Which still sounds like a long time off, but I think it will go quickly. When we first started I was all gung-ho and anxious to shop and get things ready. Then things slowed down drastically. In order to keep my sanity and protect myself emotionally, I had to kind of turn all of that off. I haven't really done any shopping or preparing at all for about nine months now. Well, the excitement is starting to return. I think after the holidays I will start "nesting" again. It's time, don't you think? We need to get her room figured out and buy a dresser and a car seat and all that jazz. I have a crib and a high chair and the big stuff. We can't really buy clothes until we have her stats, but there is still plenty to do. So, that should get me through January and then we should almost be there.
S-lady is getting excited too! I know the wait has been especially hard on her. She told me the cutest thing the other day. The place where we hang our stockings has five pegs...four of which get used. S-lady was hanging the stockings on Saturday and came to tell me that next year "all of the pegs will be taken! Just thinking about it makes my eyes water!" Is that not the sweetest thing?
One other thing...Mom sent me this old timey photo today and I thought it was so cool! This is a picture of my great grandpa, my Mom and her sister on the old sleigh. I wish it was a little better quality, but it is awesome nonetheless!