The changing of the guard

This week utterly got away from me. Number one: even though this managerial thing will be a long-term transition, everyone thinks I need to be involved in every last thing now. Number two: one of my major systems failed this week, and despite all the other happenings that I got dragged into, that was still my responsibility to fix. Number three, it's the first week of winter... here we go again...These pumpkin carving pictures are the last ones I pulled off my card (Halloween night aside) but already feel so outdated. On November 1, the seasons just instantly change. I can see how that wouldn't be the case if we had Thanksgiving in between Halloween and Christmas... but we don't. So one day it's full-on fall, and the next it's full-on winter.The kids and I were on our own for most of the day today, and we made the most of it. I feel like time is more of the essence now than ever, and I want to do what I can today in case tomorrow it's just not possible. We went to our local nursery, both to check out the Christmas open house they ran today, as well as to make sure our living rock is safely put to bed for the winter. Then we went out to buy new winter boots for the kids... the dusting of snow on the ground this morning made that one seem a little more urgent. We took a break from the to-do list to get Liam over to the rink for hockey, then finished off the day by getting the seasonal changing of the urns underway. (I caved this year and bought some artificial greenery. I dislike having empty urns but I'm sick of buying stuff early and not having it last long enough... like the fall mums that didn't make it to Halloween... barely past Thanksgiving, really.)Tomorrow we'll soldier on by getting some garland strung on the bannister, and make headway on some holiday party invitations. Making these jacks even more of a distant memory.