It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, which is not, of course, all that good news if you're the parent of a 7 and a half year old. Though there's still a certain demeanor to be enforced by the "Santa's Watching" warning, it's getting close to the holiday and there is a proliferation of stuff to do.
I'm proud to edit The Middle East Journal, first founded over 60 years ago. But back sometime in 1946, when they decided to launch in January 1947, presumably back then, in the days of mailed-in galleys and hot lead typesetting, they no doubt closed the issue to appear in January well before Christmas. But in our age of galleys in .pdf and in-house typesetting and layout, we tend to get really weird deadlines. This year it's January 2. Oh, I can change it, but I want to keep us on schedule and other things are backed up behind it. So there's a lot of work to do just when everybody else is getting to slack off for a bit.
Add to that all the parties. Tuesday night was Sarah's school Christmas pageant, in which the second graders (making their First Communion this year) and the eighth graders (their "sacramental partners" to help them prepare) sang Christmas carols together. It's on the YouTube site. I'm also trying to prepare some DVDs for the family, and of course there's Christmas shopping. Oh yes, and the plumber's coming tomorrow, and we've got to replace the furnace in January. (Not like we had to spend any money on presents or anything, of course.) Saturday we have both a birthday party for one of Sarah's friends from school, and our Middle East Institute Christmas party (also, they say, possibly a winter storm). Oh, did I mention I'm on deadline?
And, of course, there's always Sarah's anticipation. She's excited and therefore hyper.
I know Christmas is stressful for many people, but I must confess it's fun to do it with a seven year old.
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