Battling the Holiday Blues

They say that the first year is tough - especially the holidays.
I'd say "they" are right.
The last 8 months have been full of sadness and grief.  There's been a lot of stress and a lot of frustration when I remembered I couldn't call my Mommy to vent about that stress.
Now that the holidays are near, there have been many times when I wanted to call Mom and share an idea or ask for a recipe.  Those times are always followed by anger and frustration that I can't call her.  She won't be here to cook, worry about getting the house clean enough, take a ride to see the leaves changing, or force us all to go around the table and say what we are thankful for.  She won't be here to decorate, sing off-key, or spend hours at Wal-mart searching for the just-right gift for each of her grandchildren (and unknowingly clearing the shelves with her oxygen tank).
Her presence will so obviously be missing from all festivities this year and every year.
That makes me so sad.
It makes me sad enough to want to skip every holiday.
But she wouldn't want that.
Mom LOVED the holidays - all of them.  No matter her circumstances, she always made them special in the best way she knew how.  She loved to decorate and cook.  She loved Christmas music.  She loved having everyone together - family and friends!  And she passed that on to me
This year I've decided I'm going to ROCK these holidays for Mom!  I'm sure I will cry a lot. I'm sure I will feel like somebody is missing.  I'm sure I will have many moments of wanting to crawl in bed until this time of year is over.  But I won't.
I will celebrate Thanksgiving - celebrate the ancestors that she was so proud to learn about - who sailed to a new land on the Mayflower.  If it weren't for them, Mom wouldn't have been born several generations later.
I will Celebrate Christmas - celebrate the fact that God sent his Son to live and die so that I may rejoice with him for all eternity along-side my Mom!  I will bake a birthday cake for Jesus - a tradition Mom loved.  I will sing Christmas songs at the top of my lungs, no matter how I sound, just like Mom did.  I will decorate my tree with every "tacky" ornament we've got and be proud!  I will be sappy and emotional and tell my family how much I love them - just like Mom.  Clark Griswold's got nothin' on us!
So, this year GO BIG OR GO HOME if you want to spend the holidays with me!

Be warned!  My house could look like a Who-ville house this year!

The Spirit of Christmas - day 16

FINALLY!!!

We decorated the tree!!!

Between my husband, the 3 girls, and I - we have approximately 4,937,938 ornaments!  And most of them made it on the tree this year!
Since the girls are mostly grown (the youngest is a freshman in college) it is really difficult to get everyone together to decorate. We waited for the baby to get home from school to do it and I just about lost my mind looking at a naked tree for 2 weeks.
I kind of live for Christmas decorations.
Is that a problem?          Maybe.

Anyway - here she is!

If I'm honest, every year I wish we had white lights and only "beautiful" ornaments on the tree.  I'd love to add some burlap garland and maybe some bows or sprigs and a monogram tree topper.  But then when we get all of the old sentimental ornaments on the tree and I watch one of the girls put the tree on the top and see my husband's face as he remembers those little handprints, I realize just how gorgeous our tree always is.

Maybe one day I will have my "pretty tree" but it will never be as beautiful as this family tree!

The Spirit of Christmas - Day 15

This was a big day of Christmas-ing!

First, I went shopping with my college girl!  I love spending time with her.  She's grown into a beautiful young woman, this I know.  But it is amazing to me every time I see her - she's not a little girl anymore!

Then we went to a birthday party for my little friend, O!  He's 4!!! Well, he thinks he is since we already celebrated, but he actually shares his birthday with Jesus!  I bet he will think he's 5 when everyone wishes him a happy birthday on Christmas Day!

Then came what has become an annual tradition.  Some of my former students dance in the Nutcracker with Alabama Dance Academy every year.  I became their teacher in 2008 - when they were 4th graders.  I saw them dance as high schoolers this year!  They've just gotten more talented and beautiful every year!

Here I am with my favorite Snow Princess!

The Spirit of Christmas - Day 14

My cat's name is Squirrel.
Squirrel loves Christmas…

She especially loves her Christmas antlers!

Did I just write a blogpost to share this picture?

Yes.  Yes I did!

The Spirit of Christmas - Day 11

BUSY.

That is me!  Busy bee!  

I'm not complaining, but I'm certainly not used to having more orders than I can do in a day at one time!  I'm so excited to be doing so much!  I'd just really like to get the place clean and decorated.

It will happen….

right?

So, here is what a dining room looks like 2 weeks before Christmas when your Etsy shop is doing well!

Yup, that's real life, people.

And here is what your Christmas decorations look like when you are busy!

The boxes have made it out of storage, but the decorations haven't made it out of the box!  I did go through the boxes and find some items to donate to a family who lost everything in a fire last year.  That took away that box and bag in front!

THAT was where I found some Christmas Spirit - in SHARING!

Squirrel likes the pile.

Hopefully, the decorating will happen this weekend!  And I will share :)

And here's one cute gift item I worked on today.  It is a cupcake carrier that expands to allow for 2 layers of cupcakes.  Super cute product that I got to decorate with decals and ribbon!

the Spirit of Christmas - Day 12

Par-tay!

I've got this group of girlfriends who I just adore.

Wait - I have a couple of groups of girlfriends who I just adore!

But I'm talking about the girls I used to work with who have become a HUGE part of me.

We are the fab five - we travel together, celebrate together, and struggle through junk together.

Last night was our little Christmas get together that we do every year.  We eat and talk and exchange gifts and have a fabulous time! 

This year, sweet precious BEAUTIFUL Allison hosted.  It was a great time!

I personalized a holiday hand towel for each girl, along with a monogrammed ornament.  I was most excited about how I wrapped each one!  I used my favorite picture of the 5 of us from our last beach trip and cut s circle out of on envelope to let the recipient's face show through.

I was pretty proud of that idea :)

So, it was 3 gifts in one!  A towel, an ornament, and a photo!
From the girls I got a mug with an M on it (you know I love a monogram!), a beautiful silver angel bell, a scarf from Italy, and a sweet handmade necklace!

And I may have eaten too much.  Oopsies :)

The food was divine!  Candied pecans, Hawaiian Roll ham sammies, cheese fondue, peppermint bark brownies, cheddar bacon ranch pull apart bread, crispy peanut butter balls, and more!  I may need to detox!

The Spirit of Christmas - Day 10

This one makes me cry.

If you know me, you know about my parents.  Both of them are disabled and in poor health.  My Mom was on hospice for a year and a half and has since been released.  Her health hasn't improved, but it wasn't getting any worse, so she was released from their care.
Daddy is a double amputee.  He lost both legs after an infection set in post-knee replacement surgery.
The last several years has been tough on them, and our family.  The toll isn't only physical, but also emotional and mental.
They don't have easy lives and Dad, especially, suffers with depression because of it.

Just before Thanksgiving, Daddy was in the hospital with an infection. He felt absolutely horrible and his depression was worse than I've seen it in a long time.
His infections have mostly healed, but his spirits haven't really lifted.

Until an angel visited him this week.

I'm not kidding - I believe that.

Daddy has a motorized wheel chair.  Sometimes, he will ride to the drug store in front of their neighborhood to get a few things they need.  It is good for him to get out of the house like that and it is nice that he can do that if I'm not there when they need something.
This week, he went up to the store and got milk and cat food.
On his way back home, his chair died.
Wouldn't do a thing.
Here he is, stuck on the street.
Now what?  Mom can't drive down to get him. He can't do anything to help himself.
Totally disheartening.
The sweet elderly man who lives in the house where Daddy's chair quit came outside to see what he could do. He got on the phone and called Mom. She called 911.
They are on a first name basis with Mom and Dad.
They are angels too - always coming to help if one of them falls.  And they are always so nice.  (Thank you, Pelham PD & FD!)
First, the police came to assess the situation.  Another neighbor (another angel) pulled his truck out of his garage. Then the paramedics showed up!
Now we've got neighbors, police, and medics - all being angels.

While all of these people were trying to figure out how to get Daddy home, the REAL angel showed up.

She was a young petite woman with an envelope in her hand.
She walked up to Daddy and said, "Somebody gave this to me and told me to pass it on to somebody who needs it. And you look like you need it."

Then she walked away.

Daddy looked in the envelope and it was $100.
What a sweet gift!  I don't know who she is, where she came from, or who gave her that money, but I do know that God started that whole chain of events for my Daddy.

While he isn't out of the dumps, he's not so far down in them now.

Merry Christmas, to my Daddy's angel - whoever you are!

The Spirit of Christmas - Day 9

Christmas cards stress me out.  I LOVE to get them, but I usually take so long to decide on ours that they don't get sent.
This year, when I started trying to plan our cards, I made a cute card display on the back of our door instead!
Luckily, we have a metal door, so I used some red ribbon, 5 refrigerator magnets, and some tiny clothespins and made this cutie in a hurry!

Can't wait to fill it up!  It may just stay up all year.

The Spirit of Christmas - Day 8

It is so easy to get caught up in the "Spirit of Commercial Christmas."
And I am NOT judging!!!  I love Christmas songs, music, decorations, shopping, etc!
But I have been trying to evaluate myself every day.  Why do I love it all so much?  What does it really mean?
I can enjoy all of these things even more when I refocus.

JOY to the World.  The Lord has come!!!

That needs to be the center - The Lord came to earth as a lowly baby and lived as a person so that he could die for all people.

Because of His great sacrifice, I have JOY in my heart knowing that He lives in me.

Because He lives in me, I receive JOY in loving others.

Because I love others, I have JOY in giving to others.

The silly Christmas songs and the beautiful spiritual hymns bring me JOY.

Grand lights and tiny trees both bring me JOY.

Shopping for friends and family and, even strangers, brings me JOY.

Seeing what others have chosen to give to me because they love me brings me JOY.

So, JOY TO THE WORLD - in all the ways you choose to celebrate!  JOY TO THE WORLD!

The Spirit of Christmas - Day 6

I've got some Christmas Spirit to catch up on!
Since we had so many Christmas activities coming up during the weekend, I decided it was time for my first Christmas mani!
This is my go-to Christmas nail.  I did it last year and enjoyed seeing Santa on my nail, so I had to do it again.  Plus, we were doing mostly kid-Christmas stuff this weekend and the kiddos like it!

If I can do this, you can do this!

1. Starting with clean dry nails, I painted all 10 nails with Mabeline Paint the Town - a perfect red!  I love this line of Mabeline polish - goes on well, dries quickly, and sells for about $3!
2. After the red was mostly dry, I made a dotty line down the center of the nail and across the tip - Santa's fur.
3. I used the same Kiss Nail Art Paint in black to created his belt - just s thick straight line across the center of my nail.
4. I finished up with some gold glitter polish to make his belt.

Super easy and festive!  My nails are starting to chip a little - I wonder what I'll do next??

The Spirit of Christmas - Day 5

I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!!

Sorry, I had to let that out.

I have been busy busy busy this week.  I spent most of December 5th finishing orders and making deliveries.  It was rainy and 74 degrees - not really feeling Christmasy here right now!

Good thing I got to make some cute stuff to keep me in the mood!

Several of the items I made are for Christmas pictures, etc, so I won't share too much here.

I do love this little towel I got to put together for a friend though!

(Pay no attention to the mess behind the green towel)

I also downloaded some more Christmas music from iTunes.  

I bit the bullet and got PTXmas and it is beautiful!

The Spirit of Christmas - Day 4

I'm a little late writing tonight!  I stayed up until 2  last night - can't remember the last time I did that.  TONS of FdL projects to work on this week, so I was trying to get ahead.  (I'll share some of my work soon!)

Before my late-night crafting binge, I went to an ornament swap at my church.  This is a tradition with the ladies that everyone has always talked about fondly.  I hadn't' been before, so I decided that this was the year I'd go - and I brought my Mommy!

My Mom has congestive heart failure, survived a brain tumor, and has several other health complications. So getting her out of the house is an ordeal and a HUGE treat for her!

On the way to pick Mom up, I got to drive through the arches that are up every year in my parents' neighborhood.  

I.

Love.

It.

I drive so slowly down that road at night in December.  It's just so festive and beautiful!  That put me in the perfect spirit for some holiday fun!

At church, we shared finger foods and broke each others' hearts stealing ornaments and decorative items during Dirty Santa.  The sweet ladies in my church family have been praying for Mom for years, so she got lots of sweet attention.  She had a great time!

I left with one of the most coveted gifts!!!

My friend's mother in law made it and another one like it.  I'm SO happy to have this!  It's beautiful, handmade, and simply shares the meaning of the whole holiday season!

I brought two of my towels that are listed in my Etsy shop - I hope their new owner loves them too!

I will be going to the Ornament Swap every year now!  Such fun!

The Spirit of Christmas - Day 3

Today is Give Day!
I hadn't heard of it until I started seeing posts about it on Facebook.  I like the idea though - we (Americans) have been so caught up in a 4-day Black Friday and Cyber Monday that we may have forgotten to give.
So here's the day to do it.
If you've read much of my blog, or even remotely know me, you know that my heart live in Honduras at a place called Mission Lazarus.
In a nutshell, ML serves the physically, emotionally, and spiritual needy in Honduras and Haiti.  There is so much need in third world countries that we can't even fathom here in the US.  My eyes have been opened by ML time and time again.
Today, I decided to give a random gift to ML.  I also ordered a new hat :)

If you go to this link, you can buy your own hat.  Or a GORGEOUS purse or other leather good made by Hondurans who are learning a trade in order to take care of their families.  (Great gifts!!)

You can also choose to sponsor a child or provide a sustainable gift like chickens or cows to a family in Honduras. This gift does more for them than we can imagine.  It gives them a source of food and income.  It effects more than just that family - it helps the whole community.  I encourage you to at least spend the $30 for chickens!

I'm thinking about other ways I'd like to give today.  I've said that I plan to buy local, buy small, and buy from charities this year.  It takes more time and effort, but it feels great!

The Spirit of Christmas - Day 2

I'm SO ready to decorate for Christmas!  Since we are a blended family, we have some blended decorations.  I can't wait to share pieces of that with you this month.
The Hubs has a Christmas tree skirt that was crocheted by his grandmother.  It is very special to him, so he doesn't really like to put it under our real tree.  We don't want to get tree sap on it or for the crazy cat to do something to it.
This year, I am making a tree skirt out of burlap for our tree.  I helped a friend make a red and green one for her tree that turned out ADORABLE!!!
So, I bought a few yards of very light burlap at Walmart.  It was under $3 a yard, so I bought plenty!
I also used a 50% off coupon for a roll of burlap ribbon at Michael's.  It was about $4.99.
Altogether, I spent about $12 on this project!
I cut a 44' diameter circle out of the light burlap using this method from the Do It Yourself Divas.  Very simple to do!  I ended up with this after cutting the large circle, a seem up one side, and the inner circle.

Next, I lined up the ribbon along the outer edge of the skirt.  I only pinned the first section.  To make the ruffle, I just shoved the ribbon in a little fast than the skirt was going through the machine. This creates the ruffle effect.

Once I went all the way around the skirt, I sewed up the end of the ribbon so it wouldn't fray.

Then I got to work on the embroidery design.  I stressed over this one - couldn't choose.  I finally chose a font called Special Block Alphabet from Applique Corner…which. I. LOVE!

Here she is all done!!!

Squirrel approves!

The Spirit of Christmas - Day 1

Last year I shared a verse and thought about Christmas every day in December.  This year, I'd like to keep up the tradition, but change it up a bit.
The Hubs and I have talked about the commercialism of Christmas - it is a HUGE gift giving holiday, but we want to make sure we are focusing on more.  While I still plan to shop for loved ones and find the perfect gift, I look forward to spreading the love in many other ways.  I've been inspired by other bloggers who are sharing 25 days of kindness and hope to incorporate some of their ideas into my December.
December 1 - Our preacher shared a great lesson our of Hebrews 2 to kick off the Christmas season. You can listen to it here, if you would like.

We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. For since the message spoken through angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, how shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking. But there is a place where someone has testified:

“What is mankind that you are mindful of them,
    a son of man that you care for him?
 You made them a little lower than the angels;
    you crowned them with glory and honor    and put everything under their feet.”

In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is not subject to them. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them. But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered. Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. He says,

“I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters;
    in the assembly I will sing your praises.”

And again,

“I will put my trust in him.”

And again he says,

“Here am I, and the children God has given me.”

Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

In this Christmas season, I loved reading the verse highlighted above. You know how you can read the same passage over and over and something suddenly stands out?  I had that happen at church.  When God created us, He placed us just below the angels.  He crowned us with glory and put everything at our feet.
What an honor!
Angels are beautiful celestial beings - in my mind.  While I've never actually knowingly seen one, I do believe in their existence.  Who knows?  Maybe I've entertained an angel or two - especially on a mission trip!

What an honor to be created and loved by Him!
A little further down, we see the correlation between our own humanity and the humanity of Jesus.  He placed himself a little below the angels.
While angels are beautiful celestial beings - God is SO MUCH MORE.  Yet, he humbled himself to be a little lower than the angels.
Why would he do that?
For YOU, for ME.  Humbling!
So, in this season of Advent, some will call it, I choose to identify with the humanity of Jesus.  I choose to know him more by learning how he is like us - and I choose to be humbled by Him.

Shop Local

Christmas is 48 days away.

A little under 7 weeks away.

That's not a ton of time to shop.

And it's certainly not a ton of time for me to get personalized gifts prepared for you to give!

So, I'd like to ask you to pledge to shop, spend, eat, and enjoy local!  Sites like Etsy have made it possible for people like me to become small business owners.  Therefore, we all know people who can benefit from this pledge.

Honestly, I usually appreciate handmade gifts more than something that can be found by the carton in big box stores.  I'm sure there are people in your life who feel the same way.

Here are some ideas from my shop and some of my favorite Etsy shops!  

Click the picture to link to the Etsy page.

FdL  Reverse Applique Sweatshirt

FdL Give a Hoot Owl - available in other teams 

Vibrant Designs

FdL Hand Towel - available in tons of color and pattern combinations

PeachState Yarnworks

Two Sisters Designs