Did you know Christmas is coming?

I am not ready for Christmas. I'm so not ready for Christmas. I'm unprepared when it comes to gifts, cards, and plans, and I am also not prepared emotionally.

But come Christmas will. So I'm trying.

We finally finished decorating our Christmas tree. Unfortunately, I can't find a tree topper anywhere that isn't hideous. So we are topperless. Or topless. Ha.

So pretty.

On Sunday, we gathered at my parents' house to make Christmas cookies! (By we, I mean my mother, me, and the children. The men were not involved in the cookie-making process.)

Rolling out dough.

Nieces, cutting cookies.

Decorating time. This is the real fun part.

While we were all gathered together, we celebrated my niece's birthday. She's officially a teenager, which is pretty scary. In lieu of a cake, we had a birthday cookie.

Way cute. Decorated by my mom.

After blowing out the candles...

She dug right in:

Yum.

This week has been pretty fun at school. We've been doing holiday activities with the kiddos, and we've had a Secret Santa gift exchange going on with some of the staff. I have to say, I'm a pretty good Secret Santa. I've had a lot of fun picking out my gifts, and they've gone over pretty well. Plus, I'm pretty sure my recipient has no idea that I'm her Santa.

We decorated stockings with our kids (whose names I "smudged" for privacy). Tomorrow we will look inside them. Maybe we will find something!

Tonight, I spent way too much time baking cookies for gifts at school.

Peanut Butter Kisses

Brownies with some fancy stuff on top.

Now, I am tired. And the week is only half over. Like I said, I am totally not ready for Christmas. But I'm very ready for Winter Break from school. Only a couple more days and then maybe I can get caught up!