It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Ahhh...the holidays are here! Today I officially started the portion of my Christmas shopping that doesn't include a craft store. I began my crafting bonanza last week, and am always amazed at how much I think I can accomplish versus how much is humanly possible.

Because the crafts are gifts, I can't openly discuss them, but suffice to say there will be photo documentation provided at a later date (read; December 26th). If I can pull this season off, I'll have a whole new respect for myself!

Reasons why I think this year will be different:

1. I've already started my crafting projects.
2. I've made a shopping list, and kept the number of people to whom we're giving actual gifts at a reasonable number.
3. I don't have an outside job, so I can let Henry run wild in our house while I "tie up loose ends" on projects through the first two weeks of December.
4. Finally, but maybe most significantly, I have delusions of gradeur.

When explaining my plans for gifts to friends, they think that I'm awfully crafty...however, my personality, as I've said before, is that I do things "good enough". Any real scrapbooker would cringe at my pages; they are not perfectly measured, and they aren't really even that good, but they're there!

I like creating a project and looking at it thinking, "Wow, I'm pretty awesome!" I mean, who wouldn't like to stare at a chart with a bunch of numbers and shaded images for hours and then voila, you've got an embroidered pillow case!? In case you didn't catch the sarcasm, I was ready to cry after stitching the first stem of the first flower...and there are TWO pillowcases to do? Sweet...I'm glad that I'm always so realistic about my abilities and time frames.

It used to drive my best friend crazy when I'd tell her I could be somewhere in 10 minutes when clearly anyone who had driven there in the last 30 years knows that it can't be done in less than 20 (at best). It's something that I've really worked on, but I have learned that it's due mostly to my desire to be all things to all people, all at the same time. "Yes, I can definitely do that for you. Oh, no, it won't matter at all that I'm currently holding a phone conversation with someone (not hands-free), juggling three bowling pins, diapering a child and preparing a meal...I can do it all!"

Back to shopping; my friends and I went to the outlet malls near our house, and it was so much fun! The air was crisp, and the sales were hot. I love shopping for other people, while at the same time satisfying my love for checking off items from a list. We went sans children, which was fabulous, and everytime I saw the gynormous stroller trying to squeeze through the congested stores, I thought, thank God Big J is home with H otherwise, this would not be fun...wait, otherwise, I would not be here!

There's nothing like having a day out, without kids, so you can talk about all the fun/crude topics that you can't in front of kids without the muted/mouthed words that make a conversation seem like it's being told over a bad phone connection.

Anywhoooo...that's life in the fast lane for ya.

Have a Holly Jolly Christmas (or whichever holiday you celebrate this year!) Also, in case you're wondering...that's the "tree" from our first Christmas as a married couple...pretty swanky, eh? They were supposed to flank a sidewalk, oh well!