So on Monday I got up, intending to write a lazy is-it-too-late-already Halloween post, when suddenly I realized it was November. And that means screw Halloween, it’s time to start thinking about Christmas, because I absolutely cannot stand shopping in December so this is my main shopping month of the season.

And then I went to update my Facebook page with this week’s activities, and there were two major toy sales on there. That meant I had to go through my gift lists – I make a note of ideas throughout the year – and actually pick out something for everyone, so I would know if it was worth it to me to attend these sales.

And that triggered some sort of Christmas-shopping-frenzy, during which I spent two days rushing from store to store to get items on my list as if it were December 22. Just now I looked at the calendar and discovered it is, in fact, only November 6. Sir Monkeypants has a hard-and-fast rule that there are no Christmas-y things before my birthday, November 18 – no songs, no decorations, no talking about wish lists, NO. So it seems I have gone to some strange mental fugue state in which I have been transported weeks into the future and am panicking about it.

Someone kindly hose me down.

As part of my frenetic shopping days, I’ve been working hard on my Pinterest boards. I keep one board for each of the kids, as well as ones for several other people on my gift list, and when I come across something I think they’d like, I pin it there. That means that while others are pinning things like beautiful artwork and fabulous recipes and innovative interiors, I’m pinning things like Pokemon sets and pink plastic Barbie cars and DVD covers for Despicable Me 2. It’s not exactly Martha Stewart over here, but if you can get over the shame of having a cheap, weirdly commercial Pinterest board, I would recommend it, as it’s a really easy and visual way to shop for the people on your list, and if you decide to buy something, the links are all right there. Sir Monkeypants loves this – I used to send him an epically long, thousand-worded email each holiday begging him to review my choices, but now I just point him at the Pinboards. Awesome.

Anyway, after all that rushing around I’m still probably only 1/4 of the way done, and it’s not quite 1/4 of the way through November, so I should probably just chill and ride this marathon out, man.