Thursday, December 9, 2010

My Santa Collection

My mother has a gorgeous collection of Santa's that she brings out each year at Christmas. Most of them are kind of expensive, and all are absolutely gorgeous. A couple of years ago I decided that one day I would like to have a Santa collection too, so I started collecting.

My first was a Heartwood Creek Naughty/Nice Santa, which I love so much, and it actually has some of my kids names on the lists that Santa is holding, and there was enough room to add the rest. Then my best friend gave me another Santa another year. Then each year another has been added to my collection. Some are inexpensive, and some not. This year I added another Heartwood Creek Santa with Woodland animals.

I hope to continue this tradition, and to have a note of where each Santa came from, and hopefully my kids will like the idea enough that they will be happy to give my Santa's a home one day.

Friday, December 3, 2010

to P or not to P

Perfectionist = a person who is displeased by anything that does not meet very high standards
Procrastination = the act of procrastinating; putting off or delaying or deferring an action to a later time 

In reality I am not a true perfectionist - and that is something I have been working on for quite some time ;) but when it comes to anything photographic, scrappy or paper crafty my perfectionist nature rears its ugly head. It seems that because people know I love to take photos and scrapbook I feel that they expect something really WOW from me when it comes to things like, ummm, say.... Christmas Cards.

That means I put stupid pressure on myself to design and create something fantastic, which leads me to the second word Procrastination, because I seriously doubt my ability to produce said fantastic production, I put off getting started on it, and put it off, and put it off until.... oh dear its Christmas Eve and I still have not sent any Christmas Cards! eeek

Last year I only posted five cards, and that was because everyone else on my list had an email address, so I could email a .jpg of my card to them on Christmas Eve and they would still receive it before Christmas. I am afraid the posted ones probably arrived a day or two after New Years. I took the annual photo of the kids early enough, I even wrote the annual letter in plenty of time. I them ummed and aahed over the design, then decided it was all too hard, and put it off for another day, and another, and another. Of course then I had to go with something that I was way less than happy with, because I had run out of time.

Stupid huh?

So this year I am changing tactics. I have downloaded some free card templates from Becky Higgins blog, I am dropping in one photo of the family, typing a greeting, printing and posting (the envelopes are still here from last year already addressed and ready to go). No fuss, no responsibility for the design, just a simple greeting to our family and friends for the holiday season. The goal is to have them in the mail by December 16th.

I'll keep you posted - wish me luck!

White Christmas?

....I'm dreaming of a wet Christmas.... hey wait a second, that should be white not wet shouldn't it? Around here right now wet is the word. After years of very low rainfall, dam levels below 40% capacity, water restrictions and drought reports on the news each night we have been thrust into waterworld.

Overnight last night 87mm was recorded as falling on us. Gutters are running fast, dams are filled to overflowing, and the grass in the yard gets to knee height in record time. It feels quite surreal.

Christmas season to me is always couched in thoughts of heat, sweat and dust. Not damp, rain and wet ;) Yes I am sure there have been wet Christmas seasons before, but the overriding memories are of those long hot days leading up to Christmas, of being too hot to sleep at night, and of dreading the thought of having to cook and eat a hot meal for Christmas lunch. This year as the season starts we are far from those kinds of thoughts. Its probably amplified by the fact that the past few years we have been under drought conditions, so all of the green and damp feels decidedly out of place.

One of my dreams for Christmas is to actually experience a white Christmas. When I was 21 I spent a Christmas in Switzerland, surely you would expect snow... but no, for the first year in I don't know how many they had no snow for Christmas. Disappointed? you bet. I love seeing the snow scenes in photos from my overseas friends, everyone rugged up and red cheeked, it all seems so special, so romantic. At home we are all red faced from the heat, and hot, tired and irritated often too. White Christmases seem to be absent of all of that, although the reality is most of that is probably very good marketing from Hollywood lol.

So this December I am settling for a wet Christmas. Its cool enough that we can be a little rugged up, we can snuggle up inside with hot chocolate and watch movies together, we can leave the tree lights on without fear of melting the tree, we can have a hot lunch, and hot pudding without complaints.

...yes I'm dreaming of a WET Christmas ;)...

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Time Flies

Its December!

I mean, really, where did the year go? In less than two weeks the kids finish school for the year, Kelly finishes primary school forever, and I only have one primary schooler left.

Time to start my December Daily and gear up for Christmas. I love Christmas, I find its lots more hard work these days than it ever was when I was a child, but its still lots of fun. Its funny how different Christmas is as an adult, I obviously never appreciated all of the work that my mother had to put in to make things special for us, and its only now that I get it.

Our tree is up, thanks to the girls, they love "tree day", the 1st of December, they were a bit excited, and I am already sick of hearing them sing Christmas carols lol, but luckily its all good :)