Crafting Plans

Roundabout this time of year, I figure out my plan for our family Christmas card. I have been making them myself since the girls were small, and it's the one thing I dependably create myself each Christmas. I always have great plans to craft like mad, but generally, I end up making one quick cross-stitch thing (usually made in my classroom after I've taught my 6th graders to stitch...one must show solidarity, after all.) I usually make one thing for the grandparents...last year it was "Compliment Boxes" which the girls decorated themselves with paint and stickers for each grandparent, and we all filled with compliments and words of appreciation. (I maintain that Oprah TOTALLY stole that idea from me on her holiday show last year.) The year before, we made board games of the girls and the grandparents with pictures and trivia questions and things. This year will be....well, you'll have to wait on that. Oprah might be listening.

Anyhow, back to the Christmas Card. Some years they've been fairly complicated. I once did a flip book card that made me want to shoot myself - they didn't get finished and mailed till Christmas Eve. This year, I had to choose something fairly simple because of the potential/ impending/ hypothetical move. Still, it will be made by me, it will involve some sort of corny poem and pictures of the girls, and I will put it together while watching the movies on ABC Family, and Lifetime Television, and the Hallmark Channel. Now I have to wait for the supplies I've picked out to go on sale at Michael's and I'll be in business.

Speaking of Christmas movies, last night we watched Snow and Snow 2: Brain Freeze. Couldn't be cheesier, but I am so ready. Tom Cavanaugh is the goofiest, cutest Santa ever. My very favorite is called The Season for Miracles with Carla Gugino and the husband from Boob Whisperer. I mean...Ghost Whisperer. (Which we are now boycotting because Patrick insists it has jumped the shark. Gotta say...I miss the nightgowns.) I am looking forward to the new Jim Carrey version of A Christmas Carol, but I might have to wait till Christmas Eve on that one. We have made it a tradition to see a movie on Christmas Eve afternoon...it makes the waiting for Santa a little bit easier to take. Of course, for the past two years the movie we chose might as well have been called Mommy and Daddy's Naptime because Patrick and I both slept through pretty much the entire thing.

I swear I won't post constantly about Christmas from now till December 25. But sometimes, you'll just have to indulge me. I tend to get very swept away.

On another note, Happy Veteran's Day. My husband marched in a parade this morning, and fired salutes at the graves of some Civil War soldiers. I'm thinking of my friend Doug, and my two favorite uncles, my father-in-law, and Ben Sherman, a 2006 graduate from Plymouth who just died this week in Afganistan. I appreciate this day off greatly, but I don't take for granted the reason why I have time to fold laundry and make barbeque pork today. Thanks and blessings to those who have served.