Checklists and mittens and cards, oh my!

Christmas is swiftly approaching, and I can hardly catch my breath! My checklist looks like… oh, I don’t know, I guess an unchecked list…

Decorating: incomplete, and so unchecked

Christmas shopping: ditto and unchecked 

Buy Dirty Santa gift: unchecked

Gift-wrapping: unchecked

Take Samantha to have her picture taken with Santa: unchecked

Christmas cards: yeah, right

Mail gifts and cards: are you kidding me?

Third panic attack of the month: right on schedule

–oOo–

I’m making our Christmas cards this year. Yes, in fact, I AM insane.

In my defense, this is something I’ve wanted to do for five or six years, and I feel like if I do it just this once, I’ll be able to get it out of my system.

For the prosecution: (1) I have a 14-month-old baby; (2) I have a way-more-than fulltime job; (3) I don’t seem to possess all of the requisite card-making skills needed; (4) I am wa-a-a-ay too much a perfectionist to make cards. Plus, insanity is not a defense.

So I dreamed up ideas, stalled a couple of times, mocked up a prototype, made purchases from Hobby Lobby, Stampin’ Up and Michael’s, and played with a second prototype. And there I was, working hard on the project over the weekend, when crash! I slammed into a wall, after realizing how true prosecution argument number four is. And now I have all these supplies, which cost at least as much as bought cards. So two days later, I have a brainstorm, and now I’m ready to get back to it and see if my solution works.

I hope things work out, because I don’t think I’ll be able to really focus on the rest of my list until the cards are in the mail.

–oOo–

My daughter is turning into a little person right before my eyes. You know, developing a sense of humor and such. She’s done so many things for the first time lately. Almost every day since Thanksgiving there’s been something new. It’s just a whirlwind. I’m excited to see Christmas through her eyes. I know that she doesn’t understand, but she’s very interested in all of the activity. She’s asleep in every one of last year’s Christmas photos. Looking adorable in her little red dress, but completely sacked out. This year is, of course, a whole other story. It’s such fun!

–oOo–

Do they not make mittens on strings for children anymore? We have found only one pair of (supposedly) 12-24 month mittens for Samantha, and they don’t have anything to help us keep up with them. They’re also too small, and all I can find are mittens for bigger kids. All we need is a pair of light or hot pink mittens that fit and have some sort of mechanism to help us keep up with them, because, basically, if it’s not zipped or velcroed then it’s coming off in the car. And the store. And the parking lot. And the yard. What’s a mommy to do?

–oOo–

Thanks to technical difficulties on this end, my column was not in last Friday’s Index. So this is late but still heartfelt. Cal, Samantha and I spent Thanksgiving and that weekend in Childress. I was very impressed with the Christmas Festival! There were a lot of activities in addition to Treasure Hunt tickets and Santa, and what a great turnout!

I also did some Christmas shopping over that weekend, and let me tell you this: There is great shopping in Childress, people! The gifts I purchased are unique and will be very well received.