<whisper>Pssst. Guys … 51 days until … Christmas</whisper>. I know. It seems sacrilegious to me still to be thinking about Christmas this early. I even bought a couple of Christmas gifts LAST MONTH. Like BEFORE HALLOWEEN. I know. *shame*
But. You should see our December calendar. Yes, ALREADY. It’s quite full … and messy! We have a ski weekend, several parties, a turkey-fry with our crazy friends, and even an informational meeting on kindergarten. And of course there’s all the un-scheduled things we need to fit in, like Zoo Lights and gift-wrapping and tree trimming and cookie-baking and mass-attending and caroling and wassailing and one-horse-open-sleigh riding and so on. So I am already making the list and checking it twice and trying to get as much shopping and crafting done before Thanksgiving as I can. Because come Dec 1, I want to be kicking up my feet and taking it easy.
So. Things I have to do :
1. Christmas shop. This is hard … I will probably place a giant Amazon order, but it’s all the rest that get tricky. Bugging people for lists, running around town. And with the kids it’s the constant battle between having a fun Christmas for them and buying crap they don’t need. Plus I have to help Santa out and keeping that straight in my mind is always tricky.
2. Ornaments. Since Tabby was a year or so, we have been assisting her to make hand-crafted ornaments for the family. And we also do an ornament with the kids’ Christmas photo (sometimes we combine them) too. Last year it was glass ornaments with paint markers. The year before that, teeny tiny canvases with Tabby originals painted onto them. This year something new and I think Ben is ready to get in on the act. Not sure if we’ll do one for each to decorate or what. Should be fun … ish.
3. Other craftiness. I have a few projects I would like to complete as Christmas gifts for some people … some pajama bottoms for the kids, and maybe a few other bits and bobbles here and there. I need to figure out what I’ll realistically have time for and make it happen.
4. Calendars. Another tradition since Tabby was a little one is a photo calendar for all of the grandparents and aunts and uncles. It is not hard, but it’s time consuming to do photo selection. Part of me would also like to do some sort of photo book, but as that makes my head hurt, it probably will not happen.
5. Christmas cards!! Part of me says I should just give it up and let Shutterfly or some other service design our cards, but I really like doing it myself. Plus, when I use Premium Postcard, they send them for me. Cheers!
Lots to do … good thing it’s all fun!
Sounds so fun!! Making ornaments each year is a great idea. Maybe we will try it this year? We did painted salt dough ornaments when I was little. They lasted a long time… over ten years? And each of us loved to see our ornaments every year while decorating the tree. The christmas shopping has officially begun, huh! November always slips by so quickly, pretty soon we’ll be down to the wire!
Still smiling about your whisper html tag 🙂
I want to try the salted dough, so that’s good to hear. Did you see that pin where they stamped salted dough? That was really cute! I may save it for next year though. Just wrangling Ben with painting/markering the ornaments I bought. :/
Great plans for the holidays.