Ready For Santa

Once a year, I get an urge to wrap presents. The urge only lasts a few hours and if I don't take advantage of it, nothing gets wrapped. The annual urge arrived around 8 yesterday evening and by midnight, everything leaving this house looked pretty festive indeed. Wrapping presents early not only gets rid of a big chore but it also forces you to organize your gifts - and by doing so, I discovered I did have presents for everyone on my list - and I had thought I still needed three or four. I do have one present left to get - the big one for my sweetie - but he keeps changing his mind on it so that will wait until he's decided. No worries there. He's even content to go out after Christmas to get it, if it means a better price.
I also discovered I have plenty of treats in so even my grocery shopping should be pretty minimal. A bit of baking and I should be good to go.
And that means I can enjoy the season as much as anyone can who works full-time at a demanding job and part-time at a few others. This month also means shift changes since I regularly fill in for others, so that's extra stress.
Right now, I'm taking a break with a pot of Upton's Christmas tea, before resuming the usual Sunday chores. This is a tea that I didn't like when I first tried it a few years ago but for some reason, I ordered a sample with my last order. Am I ever glad I did - it's absolutely delicious and just perfect for this sort of day. It tastes of tea, oranges, cinnamon and almonds - nothing overdone.
Last week, I was in a shop when I saw a new flavor of green tea by Tetley - decaf green Lychee Pear. Green tea in bags is rarely a good thing and few companies can pull off pear flavoring so I hesitated. But something made me decide to buy it and I am glad I did. It's quite delicious. The pear flavor is more of mouth feel - sort of that edible silk texture you get when you eat a pear. There is some pear flavor but it's very subdued - just like a real pear. This is one of the nicest grocery store teas I've had in a while and it will make a good addition to my work tea stash.