so less than a week until my family comes for christmas from colorado. the following is a list of things that went wrong over the weekend, just to throw a little extra fun into the festivities:

1. the overhead garage door will no longer go up or down as of sunday.
2. the christmas lights on the roof of the house snapped off in gale force winds.
3. we got the official word from the repairman that the dishwasher needs a new motor.
4. the fancy front-load washing machine is not draining.
5. the cat knocked over the upstairs christmas tree, breaking the stand into pieces and shattering my favorite bulbs.
6. my computer has a virus called hacktool, which apparently can't be removed by anti-virus.
7. the upstairs DVD player won't work, even after purchasing a new cord thingy.
8. the large packed down lump of snow in the driveway is becoming quite the obstacle. at this point, i'm wondering if shoveling is even an option.
9. husband is talking about setting up the ugly, large, jutting ping-pong table. must destroy.
10. oldest son told santa he wants something entirely different than what he wrote in the letter.
pretty sure santa does not have time to put in a change order.

and you know what? who cares? i'm going to enjoy my family, sled down the hill of snow blocking my garage (since we can't open it anyway), wash a lot of dishes by hand and play some killer ping-pong this christmas. as i read all your crazy insane holiday blogs, i see an ongoing theme. don't let the dark side steal your holiday joy. i won't. even if the turkey burns.