A Pretty Great Start to Christmas Crazy

Y'ALL.

Were you all sitting around just waiting to clicky click on a Christmas Crazy link or something? If so, THANK YOU! We're off to a fantastic start, which makes me wonder if you knew. Really, did you know?

I'm so beaten down from internet negativity. So. Beat. Down. There are a million examples of why, but mostly it has to do with the lack of kindness that keeps coming up. And, no, calling out racism is not a "lack of kindness" in the way that saying racist things is a "lack of kindness," so don't even go there.

See that? I'm out of patience for the internet being dumb.

But then along came y'all and we're off to a solid start in helping to make sure some kids have a great Christmas. It's possible I needed a reminder of why exactly I keep this space going and there it was. In 24 hours, we raced up over $500 and that alone is reason enough to be here. So thank you.

Oh, and did I mention we started the year with a little kicker? Because we did. There were a few things that came in after Christmas last year, so there is a closet filled with toys in my house right now. I've been snagging clearance deals for the past 10 months to the tune of over $1000 in toys.

So, 24 hours after officially kicking off Christmas Crazy 2019, we're at a little over $1500. Just $8500 more to go until we reach our goal.

Let's do this!

Here's the Amazon wishlist. If you don't see the just right something, please feel free to ping me on Twitter or via email (burghbaby (at) gmail.com) and I'll be happy to add it.

If you'd rather throw cash my way, clicky click the reindeer.

Thanks for once again proving the internet is more than racist comments and cat memes.

Christmas Crazy - IT'S BACK!

Christmas Crazy.

IT'S TIME!

For those who may be new here, first of all, hi! Thanks for joining me! Mostly I use this space to write words about my two girls because I want to remember the things that make them amazing. It's all very overcompensating of me, but that's a story for another day. When I'm not using this space to remember, I like to use it for a little project we call "Christmas Crazy."

There are reasons.

For one, I'm a nut about Christmas decorations. See also: I have lots of Christmas trees. Like, more than 10. More than 20, even. I can't tell you an exact number because they're not all up and decorated yet and I know I added at least one new one when the after-Christmas clearance hit. It's possible I added more than one because I do that. I told you I'm a nut. That wasn't exaggeration. The thing is that I love Christmas SO much that the thought of it being disappointing for anyone pretty much breaks my heart.

Another reason I meander into using this space for something other than remembering every year around this time is because I can. That's an incredible privilege, really. For the past ten plus years, I've been all, "let's do some good!" and the people who read my words have been all, "Okay!" At this point, together we've raised well over $50,000 worth of toys and donated them to local domestic violence shelters.

Crazy, right? Each year, we somehow pull together $10,000 worth of toys for kids who otherwise wouldn't get a Christmas.

So, welcome to Year 11 of Christmas Crazy (that's not a typo - we really have been doing this for a very long time). We will once again be putting together toys for the youngest clients of Center for Victims. They have several kids who are looking for a reset because violence has altered their path. While a box of LEGOs can't fix everything, it can make one little moment that much better.

Here's the Amazon Wishlist. (If you don't see the just right thing now, no worries. I will be adding more items over the next two weeks.) All toys and such ship to a location where they are staged so that there is one big delivery to Center for Victims. We do that because it saves the shelter staff a ton of time and allows everything to be well-organized. Also, it means I can take a photo of our accomplishment. Like this one.

If you'd rather throw a few dollars this way, I'm happy to go convert those dollars to toys. Just click on the reindeer below.

Every tiny little bit helps, so thank you in advance!

LET'S DO THIS!

It Begins

I know I've mentioned this a time or twenty, but I don't get the hate for embracing Christmas early. Do people not realize that the easiest way to avoid holiday stress is to not create holiday stress? I'm completely serious. Spreading out the holiday preparations across two months does wonders for my sanity. For example, I could wait until ta week or two before Christmas to bake mountains of cookies to share with friends and family. It would then gobble up a full two or three days. I don't like that idea, though. Instead I start in November and shoot for one kind of cookie per week. I just start with the ones that freeze well and move on from there. An hour here and there is so much easier to manage than an all-day marathon.

Given that it's already past the halfway mark of November, I better get cracking. I haven't baked a thing. So, here's the list of cookies that I'll be making first. I post this partly because I need to get my grocery list together and partly so it's easier for a certain Big Kid to access the recipes. She has volunteered to help this year. :-)

1. 7 Layer Bars (aka Magic Cookies)

2. Dreamy Chocolate Cookies

3. Peanut Butter Snickers Cookies

4. (Not) Eat-n-Park Sugar Cookies

5. Pumpkin Cookies

6. Hot Chocolate Kiss Cookies