I must have been crazy to think that I could create my Christmas gifts this season, because with 6 days to go before The Big Day, I have NOT done a single thing (except roll ideas around in my mind… does that count?) and I have not crossed out much on my holiday shopping list either.

Talk about overestimating oneself.

Anybody interesting in renting out their services? 😆

I have several unfinished Christmas freebie items which I can’t get to though I’d love to (doing the usual self-motivation thing: No, self, you may not make any freebies until you’ve got your Christmas to-do list all checked). I do hope I’ll finish soon as there’s nothing I’d love better than to finish up that last Christmas freebie kit, so keep your fingers crossed for me!

Winter Chills and Ills

Okay so it doesn’t snow where I live. But the season brings with it its fair shair of viruses. Three of my babies are sick. One worse than the rest. If he doesn’t get better today, off to the pedia we go tomorrow. I’ve been getting less than my usual 3 hours of sleep because he wakes up every hour to either throw up (uhhhm. excuse me for the graphic language), or complain that he can’t breathe, or ask for water. Poor little guy. I want to hold him and put toothpicks in my eyes to stay awake the entire time. During the day I have to nebulize him 3 to 4 times… and each time I say “Nebulize, honey?” he says “Yes!” So I know his illies are bad.

The other two babies are not so bad… thank God. But sick nevertheless. And what mom can really not worry when one of her little ducks has the slightest illness?

I Caved

Okay, so tell me I’m crazy. Call me nuts. I have NOT done a single paper-scrapped layout since I was 16 (just to give time a perspective: when I was 16, you had to use carbon paper to make multiple copies of what you were typing out on a manual typewriter, and it would be a few years before you could type <B> to get your word into a bold font on computers with green screens and pixelated fonts).

The whole underbelly of my king-sized bed is crammed with paperscrapping materials that are in their virgin state. The three shelves and scrapping tables with drawers I have? Not used. At all.

So why, why, why did I have to go and get these things at the mall when I should’ve been shopping for gifts?

Simple. There they sat on the shelf, making droopy eyes at me, calling out softly “Take me home, take me home”… how could I resist??? Poor lonely things were calling out for a home.

😆

But I can justify, actually. The Heidi Grace Designs punchboard items? Need them to make the homemade recipe box my eldest sister requested from me as her Christmas gift this season. The K&Co. little bragbook? My dad would just love it when I send him this with layouts inside (not yet created, by the way… LOL). The Fiskars squeeze punches: the corner rounder? Never mind that I have 3 corner rounder punches (and the fourth, which is the only one I’m really using, is Jessica’s corner rounder brush… loooove digital!!!). But this one is the coolest among the paper-scrapping punches I have because you can see exactly where you’re punching! The large circle squeeze punch? Well… I’ve been pining for its 3-inch big brother, but since the store didn’t have that, I had to settle for my unrequited love affair by getting this 1.5inch one. The DCWV 6×6 chipboard blanks? Hey, you never know when you’ll need them.

I wasn’t so bad, actually. I did get some shopping done. (Some being the operative word).   😉

😆

And speaking of shopping…

Here’s the latest addition to our Santa family… hubby and I couldn’t resist adding them to our 2 santas in groovy black shades (one has a guitar and the other has a sax, and both play a guitar and a sax version of Christmas songs) and the reindeer that taps his foot in total rhythmic accompaniment to the music.

See, we were hoping our two youngest boys , j (who’s turning two at the end of December) and S (who’s 3), would find these new Santas less frightening. See, the group of three jazzy folks I just described had the strangest effect on our two boys: when we turned on the music and the Santas started strumming and blowing on the sax and the reindeer started tapping, my two boys stared in disbelief and ran away.

So enter these new two: Santa on his sleigh with Rudolph behind him (though you can’t see him too well in this shot) happily bob along on the sleigh as the music plays. Then the other Santa’s legs grow and shrink as he says “ho-ho-ho!” and Jingle Bells plays in the background. He gets tall and short and tall and short.

Come to think of it, as my friend Noel said, why SHOULDN’T it be scary for the kids? A growing and shrinking Santa who can only utter repeating 2-letter syllables Ho Ho Ho… hmmmm. Words of wisdom from a dear new friend whose daughter Emma used to cry on Santa’s lap each Christmas.

😆

And what am I doing…

having the fun of my life sitting on this porch swing with you while the mountain of unwrapped gifts looms before my very eyes and the holiday shopping list is crying out “Hey, look at me! Look at me and DO something!” ???

Gotta get running!!! Six days! Six days!

Does anyone know how to freeze time? All I’m asking for is double the number of days left!

Catch you later, my sweeties!

Oh… and when I get around to doing the creations I crazily thought of making this Christmas, I am sooo sharing with you whatever it is I have… whether they’re templates or instructions. 😉