Sharing Christmas

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

The mayhem of Christmas is over and I managed to come out sane.

I don't understand why Christmas is so stressful, when it is a time for remembering our Christ Jesus. I guess I have gotten caught up in the commercial aspect of it all. I am going to make it an ongoing resolution to create projects throughout the year, open a Christmas saving funds, and start some of my shopping in September. I hope to keep it!

As the years pass on, I realize that Samantha is enjoying Christmas not so much for the gifts, but the fact that she will be sharing that time with family and creating traditions. Our Christmas tradition since we have moved into our new home is having a Christmas Eve party with friends and family. We usually play board games, eat, and enjoy a cocktail or two, three, or four... to the wee hours in the morning. This year my nephew, Jeff, decided to entertain us with his acoustic guitar as we sang Christmas Carols. I think the rest of us need voice lessons or at least prepare us with script before the performance. It was great fun though!

Christmas Day did not start so early, because of the late night Christmas Eve festivities. As as the kids get older, the idea of getting up early and opening presents isn't as exciting as sleeping in. We did get up around mid-morning to start cooking and got ready for the Christmas day activities. The kids (more like tweens) decided to wait for the adults to open their gifts. After a late lunch, we dove into the presents. We decided this year instead of everyone opening their gifts at once we would watch as each individual opened their gifts. We started from the youngest to the oldest. As usual Samantha took the longest, because her pile was so big. Gift cards was the gift giving choice this year. I hate cards, but because of my tardiness in buying presents, I was compelled to purchase them.

Samantha got a Guitar Hero for her Wii from Santa. I think everyone enjoyed playing it as much as she did. She is getting pretty good at it too! The rest of the family gave her clothes, which she so desperately needed. I received cash, gift cards, some new dishes, and a Zutter machine. I can't wait to start to use the machine in making my own mini-binders. Hector received mostly clothes. For some reason this was the under garment Christmas, because everyone seemed to get a new pair of underwear or socks.

Overall it was a great Christmas and everything came together after my panic of not being organized.

Creative Craze

I was busy creating all kinds of gifts this month. Attached are pictures of some of my creations. My gift swap was a desk organizer. I bought some CD crates, decorated them with scrapbook paper, decoupaged, and embellished them.

I also did a recipe swap. The idea was to keep with the same paper theme. We had recipes you could use year around, but specifically were seasonal. I included one of two of the kitchen mittens with the recipe swap.

Finally, I did a cookie sheet calendar. I made my calendars so you could use them in your kitchen. I used cookie sheets, which I painted, glued scrapbook paper on, and then decoupaged. I then used chipboard pieces to make monthly numbers and then put magnets on back so that they would adhere to the cookie

sheet. You can use the back of the cookie sheet to save the letters for the following months.

Another photo shoot

As mentioned in the previous post, my December has been busy.

I had another photo shoot with my friend Holli and her family. The day was a little bright, but I managed to pull off some semi-decent shots.

If I keep doing this, I will have to get squeekers or toys to keep the toddlers focused on me and not the surroundings.

I'm anxious to see which they chose for their Christmas card.

Where have I been?

Not posting on my blog.

I have lots to share, because December has been a crazy month. Always is though. I take on too much and then can't seem to have enough time to get it all done.

Last week (12/13) my nephew graduated from TEXAS A&M and I hosted his graduation party at my house. Believe it or not my house was marooned out. We are big TEXAS fans and that was a big sacrifice to display the colors. The family is proud of Josh and I truly want to commend him on an accomplishment well done. It was also a great time to visit with family members we usually do not have a chance to visit with, so that's always fun. I posted a picture of my mom, her sister and brother, which was a great photo op because they don't get together too often.

I was working on the final gift swaps and trying to get them mailed out and finally accomplished that! We gave some of the gifts to teachers and kept some of them for ourselves. I have one more project to complete and I am done.

As far as Christmas gifts. Haven't even started. I guess I will be a last minute shopper this year. I'm not a gift card person, but I may have to resort to buying them, because I sure hate running around looking for the right gift. I used to love Christmas when you had an actual gift to open not a card with a card inside. Geez!!!!

12 day tags

For all my scrapping friends-if you have not visited Tim Holtz's blog, you need to go there. He is making these wonderful Christmas tags and you have the opportunity to win the items he uses to make these tags.

Great creativity on his site! Picture above is the tag for today (12/5).

Post - Thanksgiving happenings

Black Friday - used to be really into it, not so much anymore. Hector did get up to go and get a couple of items he wanted and went on a semi-Christmas hunt. I stayed in bed.

After the crazy crowds I ventured out and it was not too bad. Hector said the crowds were worse earlier in the morning. Michaels and Hobby Lobby were having awesome sales, but I stayed clear because I knew that I would get in trouble if I went into those stores. I think the worse store I went into that looked like a hurricane had gone through it was - OLD NAVY. I mean, why can't people just put the items back where they found it and not on the floor.

Saturday was a good day! Since I purchased my new camera, I have been playing around with the idea of doing part-time weekend photography. Like family pictures, engagement photos, simple weddings, etc. Well I had my second photo shoot on Saturday and I was pleased. I believe the family was happy too.

I met the family in League City and took some pictures around a local park. Right across one of the parks was an mock railroad station. We took some pictures of them on the tracks and I think she (Melinda) liked those the most. I want to show people they can get out of the standard picture zone (i.e. Sears portrait studio and fake background shots). I have a couple of more coming up in the next week, so look for more postings soon. I posted some of her pictures above.



As mentioned in and early posting - Procrastination. I am still working on my giftie swap and that is what I worked on some over the weekend. I started simple and like always I would walk away and say it needs more the next day. So, I added more. Well the end product turned out great, but getting the first one is always hard because my ideas go in several directions. I am making a desk organizer. The one item posted in the picture above is going to my scrapping friend Nichole. She wanted something for her daughter's room, Naomi. The other one in the making is for my friend Brenda and she will be using it in her office. You can put anything in the mason jars, but the key is to keep your room organized.

Wish I could have another holiday day. I could use it to finish my giftie swap!

Turkey Dash, Dine, and Doze

Thanksgiving - where did it go? Was I there?

The day was just a whirlwind day for me. The night before I put my turkey into cook and was watching it carefully all night. I was afraid it was going to burn, because it was my first turkey to cook. Hector always frys one, but this year he did not want to.

After the last alarm went off at 6am, I figured it was time to wake up and get ready for the Turkey Dash 5K run. My turkey was resting on the stove, so I headed off to do my duty and burn off those calories for the day. The run started at 8:15 am and boy were there a lot of people there. Honestly, my body was not into it - my time was 39.14. That is an aweful time!!! I did it year before last in 35.10 and I had hoped to beat that time. I run at least 2-3 days a week, so I should have been in my zone, but I wasn't. Maybe it was the lack of sleep the night before.

When I got back from the run, I took a quick shower and headed off to Victoria to spend the Thanksgiving day with my family. We got there with some time to spare and by that time I was starving, because all I had was a diet coke and a bottled water. I munched on some cookies until lunch was ready. We had a great festive spread as always. Aunt Mary decided to play games afterwards, but my body was telling me chill girl! So I did. I fell a sleep for about an hour and a half and it felt like the day had flown by me.

Next year, I am catering it so I can enjoy a goods night rest before my run!

Turkey Time Warp

Okay so I am a little behind on posting my Thanksgiving blessings and holiday greetings & happenings, so I'm taking you back a couple of days.

My blessings:

1. Me and my family survived IKE with no damage and no discomfort from the aftermath of the storm

2. We have survived all of the economic woes that half of our nation is experiencing

3. My brother-in-law is managing rehablitation from a stroke he had this past summer

4. Greatful to my family for their love and joint company through the holidays and all year long

Hope you and your family had great day of turkey, family bonding, football, or whatever preoccupied your day.

A day to remember and new hope

I am probably one of the few that still reads the news paper on Sunday mornings, and not just for the sale ads. I really like to read the City and State section because of the focus on hometown people.

I was glancing through the paper this morning and saw a story on a gentleman named Rudy Castro. He was a banquet captain at the historical Rice Hotel in Houston. His story was about the his last day with John F. Kennedy. What caught my attention was the title to the story 'Serving his last supper'. You see he served JFK the day before his assassination at the Rice Hotel. He mentioned JFK was like a movie star. The following day he was serving another banquet when he heard over the speaker system that Kennedy had been shot and 45 minutes later his death was announced. "The world was shattered and everything was shut down" said Castro. The article also said that the present generation tends to forget how the nation was crippled by this tragedy. The article was written because it was 45 years ago on November 22, 1963 that Kennedy was assassinated.

I was not born during that era, but as long as I can remember I was always fascinated with the the legacy of the Kennedy's. I think they are a family that has provided a great service and support to American politics.

This was the last paragraph written in the Castro article.

"He (Kennedy) was my biggest hero," Castro said. "Just seeing him on TV or in a photo was enough to lift your hopes and dreams. Maybe this generation will have that with Mr. Obama."

I hope Obama does bring the change he promised in his campaign and I am elated to be present in this era to experience a new page in politics.

Procrastination

Why do I always wait to the last minute to get things done? Because my life never slows down - thats why!

I have recently stayed up the last couple of night trying to finish some recipe swaps and giftie swaps with some of my crafting friends. Every year I say I am going to get it done early and I don't. Maybe I could get it done early, but it's all of the other things I undertake that add to getting them done. Or just maybe I have to have my hands in everything that I can not say no to something. Yea - that sounds about right!

So these are the things I am working on for the next two weeks.

• Recipe Swaps
• Giftie Swaps
• Ornament Exchange
• Cookie Sheet calendar

I know it doesn't mean anything to my non-scrapping friends and family, but if your fortunate to receive one of these gifts you will understand. I have posted some candids of some of my recipe swap pages. Thanks to my friends Holli and Kareena for coming over and helping me with cutting the pieces for the front page and supplying the paper.

I was asked by one of my old neighbors to make some wine charms for her husband's 40th birthday which is this Saturday. His small 40th birthday has turned out to be a big shindig! Can't wait to see the festivities on Saturday.

Meanwhile another night will come soon and you will find me in my dungeon office with paper scraps around me. I leave you with the quote below.

Creative clutter is better than idle neatness.

Dewberry Farms

Dewberry Farms has come a long way in five years. The last time I took Samantha she was about five years old. They were a small farm with a corn field maze, some farm animals, and corn wagon train-that's it! Well they sure have grown!

Some friends, Samantha, and I went out Saturday evening and I was truly impressed with what they have out there now. Samantha called it a country amusement park. They have something for every age group, which makes it great for the parents. Samantha and her friend did the zip line, farm flinger, walked through the corn maze twice, swung on the black momba, rolled in the large crate wheel, and ended with a pumpkin stroll. The pumpkin stroll was awesome. I tried to take the pictures, but I did not have my camera adjusted correctly for night pictures and I could not see out there. I have posted a few that were presentable. There were several themes in the pumpkin stroll: all about Texas, sports, politics, cartoons, and scary.

Next year I think I will buy a season pass and hit Dewberry on the weekends for fun. There was some great eating too: turkey legs, roasted corn, kettle korn, and homebaked goods. I am sure next year there will be another addition to this farm pasture attraction. Like the movie "Field of Dreams"....if you build it they will come.

Halloween 2008

I think Halloween has gone to the adults! Samantha and some friends of ours went out trick or treating and there were not too many people home. If they were home they did not want to be bothered so the left the bowl outside for a free for all.

Regardless, Samantha scored some candy stash and enjoyed the evening with her friend. I almost thinking this may be her last year trick or treating. Although, I did see quite a few older kids out.

She dressed up as an Aqua Fairy, or as I called it a mermaid costume with wings. I did her make up and we sprayed her hair blue, which you could not really see at night unless she was in the light. Hector stayed at home and passed out the candy. He even mentioned there was not a big turn out, but like I mentioned half the neighbors were gone.

So next year my plan is to have our street be the haunted house street. I guess I need to start working on the props.