Holy Cow, It's December!

Wow, I can't believe it's the last month of the year.  Time does march on... (duh!)

I have so much to do.  I'm really glad I completed my National Novel Writing Month project a few days ago (yeah, okay, I'll shut up about it now), but I'm very far behind on the whole Christmas thing.  It's December 3:  three days before Bookworm marches in the local Christmas parade, ten days before my community chorus concert, twelve days before we'll go get a Christmas tree, and three weeks before the Small People Living In My House will be pounding down the stairs, demanding to open their stockings and eat homemade cinnamon rolls.

I need a lot more time.  I haven't bought any gifts; I haven't baked anything; I haven't decorated anything.

Next project: Make Christmas happen, simply.  I mean, I need simple and inexpensive and easy ways to make it feel like Christmas around here without doing a lot of the work myself - and I could pick up Better Homes and Gardens or Woman's Day or some other magazine, but that would feel like wasting time.  (Blogging's not a waste of time, is it?  Please tell me it ain't!) Might have to go check out the emergency holiday missions at FlyLady.org, too.

As I'm formulating the Christmas plan, I think I'll start by cleaning up the joint.  (Eek!)  Get all the fall stuff put away, help the kids pack up anything they won't need over the winter months, ditch the "I haven't used this in months" items lying around.  We'll see how it goes.

As an aside, I smelled the Laura Mercier Minuit Enchante' parfum that people are raving about on my favorite perfume blogs.  I don't live anywhere near a Nordstrom's, but managed to hit the one in Richmond a few days ago, in the course of  attending a farmers' conference and, incidentally, visiting my brother in order to hold the new baby.  (He's precious, of course. I got to snuggle him and kiss his little fuzzy head, but not for long enough.)  Anyway, I was expecting a big ol' dusty resiny Opium-like thing, and instead what I got was a gorgeous spice overload.  It spends about twenty minutes in the too-sweet zone, but then it's a pileup in the spice aisle, with freshly ground cinnamon tackling clove, and nutmeg jumping on top of vanilla bean.  I thought it was terrific.  Better, I got some on the inside wrist of my jacket sleeve, so my jacket still smells great too.

On the other hand, my brother, when invited to sniff my wrist, jerked his head back as if he'd been slapped and asked what I'd done to tick off the sales assistant.  As if you couldn't guess, he doesn't care for perfume. Minuit Enchante' is a bit linear, and seems more like a Generally Good Smell than a serious perfume.  I'd rather have Teo Cabanel Alahine, otherwise known to me as Happiness In a Bottle, Winter Variation.  But ME is a nice thing to see in a mainstream release.  Bottle's pretty, too, with that heavy magnetic cap.

Well.  I'd better get cracking on that cleaning-up thing.  I plan to be back tomorrow with a review of Penhaligon's Amaranthine (better known to my swap buddies as Amaranthigh, or Amaranthingy).

Here are links to a few other reviews of Minuit Enchante':
Abigail at I Smell Therefore I Am
March at Perfume Posse
Angela at Now Smell This

Image is Advent Calendar by laurasjoquist at flickr.com.