So, this coming Sunday is Christmas open house at one of the gift shops and next Sunday is open house at the other one.  With the first one being only a few days away, you would be right in assuming that we're working late hours and getting all things Christmas put out and displayed. 

I know.  I know.  It's only early November.  But, we've not neglected Thanksgiving and have a whole table devoted solely to it right at our front door, so don't you fret about that. 

It's been so warm down here for the last couple of weeks.  Summer just will not die and, here on November 4, I'm ready to take an ax to it.....or hack it to death with a machete.  Heat apparently brings out thoughts of gory violence in the usual peace-loving me.  Y'all know warmth is not my friend and its attempt to seep over into months in which it doesn't belong is just making me cranky.  I mean, warm weather gets more than its fair share of time down here and it's cutting into my time now.    

So, this week, we've had to crank the air way down and turn on the Christmas music to try and capture the least bit of Yuletide spirit in this ridiculously humid heat wave.  I mean, it's just hard to get in the mood to put out snowmen and the Baby Jesus when you're perspiring and swatting mosquitos.  But, we do what we have to do down here in the South.  They're forecasting highs in the 60's by the weekend, so we'll all feel like Elsa has paid us a visit.     

Before I go to bed tonight, I'm setting my alarm for 4:45 a.m., y'all. 

Yes.  Me.  4:45. 

That's like 30 minutes before the Proverbs 31 wife gets up. 

My mother, aunt, two cousins, and I are going on a little girls' shopping trip tomorrow........one of those Christmas markets......with early admission tickets.  And for the safety of everyone, I am not driving.

This time of year, the lingering heat also presents wardrobe issues for us, southern girls.  I mean, if you're going Christmas shopping, you don't want to look like you could be going to a Memorial Day BBQ or a luau, but you don't want to sweat through your scarf, sweater, and boots either.  The struggle to look seasonally appropriate without suffering from heat exhaustion is real down here.  It just is.

So, I better turn in soon.  I'm one of those people who can't fall asleep if they know they have to get up early the next morning.  I lie there and think about how I'm not sleepy yet and then look over at the clock and start worrying about how much sleep I'm not going to get.  "If I fall asleep right now, I'll get 5 hours."  And then I start thinking about how terrible I'll feel the next day if I only get 5 hours of sleep and I think about it until it's down to 4 hours.  And so on and so forth.  The struggle of the nighttime peg trying to fit in the morning hole is also real.            

My posts may be a little spotty this week and next week but, hopefully, once that is all behind me, I'll have a little reprieve from all the busyness.

Wish me luck with this predawn thing.

Night!