Gettin' in the Christmas Spirit

I have a confession to make: I'm a closet Scrooge. Yep, that's right. For the past 7 or 8 years, I've hated this season. I hated shopping for gifts, wrapping them, decorating my house and tree, getting together with others, and so on. I tried to put on a semblance of a happy person primarily for Hannah and Emily, but inside I was scowling. The strange thing is, up until Dad died, Christmas was my most favorite holiday. I couldn't wait to break out the decorations, buy people presents, have Christmas parties, and watch the Christmas programs on TV. But, my scroogy-self is going to change. I've decided I'm going to actually have a Merry Christmas inside and out this year.

So, I started by having a day to make ornaments. I bought a new ornament die for my die cutting machine, and let the girls (and Jo Ann, Vickie, Lauren, and Aaron) have at it--including my fabric, embellishments, paint, paper, and so on. I have to say, I enjoyed myself.

(Unfortunately there are no pictures of myself or of Vickie...) :-(

(Part of the mess we made!)

I came away quite tired (I spent the morning running to church with Hannah and Emily, the store, making homemade chicken noodle soup and bread, helping with the ornaments, cleaning up, and then making dinner), but the effort was worth it. I'm sitting here at 7:00 pm listening to Hannah serenade me with Christmas music (that I've had playing non stop) and smelling the batch of chocolate chip cookies fresh from the oven, and I'm happy. I'm beginning to feel the Christmas spirit. Let's hope it stays.