I leave that to my cat -- she'll dive under the bed and you'll hear sounds of violence taking place from down there and then she'll emerge all covered in dust bunny fur!
I finished Xmas shopping yesterday..I must save some money for other things also I also went to the Christmas market, where a childrens choir was singing carols..and very well they did. I also finally have a Christmas avatar
-8 I'm finally gonna wrap presents and do cards today. The homemade card ideas aren't great, but since my mother and sister have both come to me and said they're out of ideas and not to expect anything awesome this year, I'm not too worried.
The presents are all wrapped and there's only one card left to make, which I'll do on Saturday. The card done today turned out far better than I expected. It was my first time carving an aperture card - and it looks okay!
I have one word for you my dear fellow. B...r...i...c...k. Stuff a little newspaper around it it doesn't rattle and use an appropriately sized package. Make sure it contains one of her other gifts and make her open it next to last (The real coat needs to be last for this to work if Mom's package is already there) I have about 20% of the wrapping done and all the gifts but one bought. Will hit Toys-r-us for that one tomorrow. Am starting to figure out Christmas dinner now...
Just waiting on one more package to arrive, and that's that. I'm looking forward more to after-Christmas holidays, so I can spend time with MY family, instead of the dreaded in-laws. *shudder* Plus, friends are having their annual game-day, Pizza Party New Year's bash, so that will be loads of fun. That will be when the few friends will exchange gifts, since we didn't see each other during the holidays.
Visited my former team to share their Christmas lunch yesterday. First of several turkey meals I expect to be having in the run-up to the big day.
Yeah, I think I have 4 pencilled over the next week, not including Christmas Day itself. I don't even work with any of them anymore, but catching up with them all is still fun. It's lucky I actually like roast turkey and the trimmings a lot. I'm amusing myself by choosing different wines to bring along to each one, until I find the perfect match...
-6 I bought some candy canes yesterday, for the first time in a couple of years. Minty Christmas goodness! The last card is being made today. I'm not sure the printer will be up to the pic I'm gonna print - it's not that the picture's anything special, just that the printer's been doing terribly for the past few months and no amount of head-cleaning seems to fix it. I hope I don't end up wasting too much photo paper.
I'm going to strip the tree naked soon because the string of lights we bought a few weeks ago is so cheap that about 1/4 of the lights don't work. So I purchased some new lights (which are being sold off cheap now) and will completely redecorate the tree. Why are all the tree lights so damned small? I used to love the big candle-shaped lights we had on our trees when I was younger, but those type are nowhere to be found. Something my husband said earlier reminded me of a running gag gift which made its way between my three brothers (4, 8 and 9 years older than me) and me for years. About 35 years ago an aunt gave my youngest brother what became known as "the yellow stapler set" as a gift. It was boxed and contained a bright yellow stapler, tape dispenser, and staple remover. It was cheap, butt-ugly and my other brothers and me teased the youngest brother mercilessly about it ("Wow, Auntie must dislike you so much that you're out of her will!"). So the following Christmas my youngest brother wrapped the yellow stapler set box and put it under the tree for one of our other brothers. That brother gave it to the third brother for his birthday, who then gave it to me the following Christmas, and I passed it back to the oldest brother as his birthday was next, and so on. This yellow stapler set made the rounds between the four of us for about 10 years, with Christmas being the most exciting time as we never knew who was going to get it (you knew you were going to get it for your birthday if you didn't have it already!). I think the set was thrown out by my dad when my mom died and he moved into a condo, and it saddens me that the tradition can't continue. It was childish, pointless, and so, so much fun.
I made sure to have a big glass jar with individually wrapped mini candy canes -they look good hanging from a cocktail glass with a Candy Cane Cocktail in it This year I saw something interesting in a shop: a set of candle shaped electric lights with little clamps to hold on to branches and NO WIRES! -each had a little battery and the set came with a remote control! -I kinda regret not getting them... luv it!
I love the yellow stapler story, macloudt! You need to find an indentical one on eBay and resurrect that next year. -5 I got the photoshopping done on my sister's card yesterday but I still have to build it.