Wii Would Like to Give a Gift to You

I am a long way from being done with my Christmas shopping, but I've started, so I'm feeling OK about that. I like to save some shopping for December, since I'm always in a spend-spend-spend mood then, sucker for seasonal marketing that I am. But I like to spread out my shopping as much as possible, so that each person gets a thoughtful gift rather than whatever was on sale as I walked through the mall on Christmas Eve.

I've also gotten a good start on planning Ellie's 4th birthday party, which will be in October. I know what we're doing, have a theme, have a general idea for the cake I plan to design, and am mulling over homemade invitation ideas. Every year the planning gets a bit more complex, though the parties are still pretty simple (here at the house, no hired entertainment).

Before Christmas and Ellie's birthday, however, is my birthday. I will be 33 this year, but not until the middle of next month. Since my birthday feels like fall, it still seems to me that it's a long way off. It's still swelteringly hot and dry here, and it's August. Nowhere close to fall! This year I keep forgetting about my birthday entirely, mentally moving on to bigger holidays later in the year.

Everyone else, however, really seems to be thinking about my birthday. Oddly, I've already gotten most of my presents. First, my mom took me to get a pair of Dansko clogs. These are ridiculously expensive, and she knew that if she just sent me the money I'd never get around to buying myself the shoes, so she took me shopping while she was visiting a few weeks ago.

Next, Paul got me a Ninteno Wii. I have been waiting for this console for a long, long time and am so excited to have it. The house is a mess and Paul and I are both sleep deprived, but we're having lots of fun. (Since we can only play after the girls go to bed, that seriously limits the all-consuming nature of this particular pastime.) I got this present early because Paul thought it would be much harder to find than it was, and once he got it he had to give it to me immediately.

In the mail yesterday, I got a book from my youngest sister, which I haven't opened yet, but the packing slip assures me that it will help me get over missing Harry Potter.

In the mail today I got a really wonderful greeting card organizer that I've been eyeing in catalogs for a long time. I have no idea who it's from!

I know why my friend E is longing for fall: her husband is scheduled to redeploy from Iraq soon.

But I have no idea why everyone else is showering me with wonderful, amazing gifts this summer. I'm not complaining! I could get used to this sort of treatment.