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 13

Friday the 13th - ha!  I laugh at you!
It was a great day for me! I got so many orders done that I'm really seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.
I had a big order of blank shirts come in, so I got those out of the way.  I finished some new favorites that will be offered in the shop soon.  And I even did a little jewelry making.

Then I got some presents wrapped while watching a couple of Christmas movies: The Grinch with Jim Carey and A Christmas Story.  I can't go a Christmas without seeing both at least once!

The Christmas Spirit is coming alive at this house!

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 7

SANTA!!!!!
I know him!!!!!!

I got to eat breakfast with Santa, people!!!

Every year at my church, we have a huge party called Breakfast with Santa.  We eat pancakes with chocolate chips, syrup, and powdered sugar, wash it down with juice and coffee, and chase it with cupcakes and candy canes!

Santa makes a grand entrance and reminds us of the true meaning of Christmas.  Then we all sang Happy Birthday to Jesus.

Once the kids are whipped into a frenzy, we start making the rounds to see Santa and participate in different activities.

Our group got to see Santa first!  I had to sit on his lap, of course!

Kim Brantley Photography - click photo for link.

I even got the Hubs to sit on his lap with me!  But I promised I wouldn't broadcast that one ;)  It was pretty cute - Santa made him do it!

Then we moved on to the game room!  They had a cupcake piñata, some cupcake blowups, and a festive music.  The kids enjoyed running off some of that sugar!

Then came the present room.  They each made decorated a ball shaped ornament to look like a cupcake.  They they glued it inside of a silver cupcake liner - too cute!

We then visited the craft room where they painted Christmas trees on canvas.

Then my favorite part came when they made goodie bags for children in Guatemala.  It was sweet watching them each pack toys and school supplies into little bags.  Each child also got to color a card to add to the bag.

Last, but not least, came the train ride.  Each kid got a ridiculously loud whistle and hopped on board.  And then one dad did too - he seriously looked like Buddy the Elf in that tiny little train!

A lot of hard work went into that party.  I know the kids loved it, but this big kid loved it too!

After the party, we did some Christmas shopping and ran into all kinds of people at the mall.  Then we finally got our decorations out of storage.  They (and I) are patiently waiting for this weekend when we can decorate as a family!

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!