It’s that time of year again, where everything seems to be happening all back-to-back with little signs of slowing down.

After returning from a weekend visiting friends in South Bend, Indiana (before the giant snowstorm, luckily), I stopped to take a look at all the other things we have going on in the coming weeks. The image on the left is of the Google Gadget I’ve been using lately to countdown to some of this madness, and is hasn’t been much fuller than it is right now.

Just looking at the major items that we have going on, Thanksgiving is only 9 days away, and we’re thinking, “When did that sneak up on us?” As we do every year, we’re going to dinner with Cindy’s family, and this year its going to be a new spot in Lockport that we haven’t been to before. Plus, my mom will be joining the group for the first time, so that will be nice.

Then, it really gets crazy. We’re going to the Hawks game against Anaheim at the United Center on December 3rd, which is the Wednesday night before we leave for our next Door County trip the following morning. No sooner will we be going back to Wisconsin the following weekend for my great grandmother’s 90th birthday party in Lake Geneva. God bless that woman, we’d go up there more if we could.

Not listed yet, but Cindy’s grandfather’s birthday is a only a day or two difference from that weekend, and we usually go out to dinner with him as well. And then it’s followed by the one-two punch of Christmas and New Years. Luckily, I get that week off of work, so it will be a chance to recover.

And then lastly, but definitely not least, is our trip to Maui in February. Notice that there’s nothing after that, since there’s nothing really left to do after coming home from one of our Maui trips. Boy, I can’t wait.

Keep in mind that these are all just the major things. You can factor in other dinners out with friends, trips to the mall (and those crazy holiday shoppers) and all the other usual activities that keep our minds off of work throughout the week. Now you can really see how well that Maui trip is going to feel when these next few weeks are all said and done. :)