And life keeps speeding up...

We are on so many countdowns right now:

• 31 days to Christmas  |  Today is the first day of tree season!
• 21 days to the Wee Ski 3.0's due date  |   Still cannot believe it.  He's measuring more than 6 pounds right now!
• 8 days to the first day of Advent  |  Cannot wait for this year's Advent season with the boys.  
• 0 days to Christmas Tree Season!  |  Today's opening day!

The past few weeks have been a whirlwind...it's been a constant battle to stay ahead of things and not get behind.  Most mornings, I have been out of bed by 4 or 4:30, with the occasional sleeping in until 5 am.  :)  I seriously do love being a morning riser.  And after nearly 5 years of marriage, Jonathan's learned how to sleep through my alarm and not wake too much while I'm getting up.

Things that I am loving right now:

• 14 Finian Road shoots in the past 8 weeks.  Nearly done with the edits and turnarounds for Christmas...just a few left!  Praying that the rain gives us some reprieve this weekend for a few scheduled shoots on the farm!  It's been in the back of my mind that the baby's coming early...so I'm trying to keep up on everything JUST IN CASE.
• A very fun Thanksgiving dinner yesterday on the farm.  My parents, Mike, Kristine and the kids came down for an early-ish dinner and finding Mom and Dad's tree.  I haven't cooked much (let alone big feasts) in the past few months with the pregnancy, so it was so fun to be back in the kitchen.  We had an awesome 20 pound turkey, roasted garlic mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, gorgonzola & walnut toasts, baked brie with apricots & pineapple & crushed almonds, roasted broccolini, crazy delish gravy, and my first two ventures into pie: pumpkin pie and mini berry pies with homemade vanilla ice cream.  I cannot begin to describe how excited I am, at nearly 37 weeks along, for leftovers.  IT WILL BE EPIC.
• Cousins.  Thomas & John Paul had so much fun with their cousins yesterday, that when everyone was heading out to go home, I found Thomas laying down in the dirt crying.  I assumed that he had tripped, but no, he was crying that he couldn't go up there for a sleepover.  "MOMMY I WANT TO GO THERE WITH THEM WHY CAN I NOT GO I WANT TO SLEEPOVER PLEASE PLEASE SOB SOB SOB".
• Tree season.  I am so lucky to have extended family on Jonathan's side that I adore.  Even though we all live within a mile of each other, everyone's schedules are so crazy that it takes tree season to get everyone in the same room at the same time.  And I'll be honest -- some of my favorite moments come with the aunties and uncles when you're on hour 8 and everyone's a little stir crazy when it's raining cats & dogs.  We have special surprises for them this morning to celebrate the opening of tree season, can't wait to give them!!

Speaking of...I need to get up and going and into the shower...the farm opens for 2012 business in one hour, 55 minutes!  Cheers!