Thursday, September 13, 2007

Waking up on Christmas morning/ Hours before the winter suns ignited

On Labor Day, I entered our local Stop and Shop and was rendered speechless. I was in shorts and flip-flops at the time and I had purposefully walked by the display of mums without making eye contact. "Not yet" I said to myself "it's too early." But as soon as I entered the store, I was eye-to-eye with a towering, menacing snow globe full of wretched, plastic blow-up figures engulfed in blowing faux snow.

That snow globe seems to have done something to my unconscious because I can't stop thinking about Christmas. Last time I had photos printed to Target I had 50 prints made of one I particularly likes to enclose in our Christmas cards. I have a little gift ideas list in my Filofax (yes, I still have a Filofax- some day I'll tell you about my experience with a Palm Pilot) and when I'm out shopping I find myself jotting things down.

Last year,around this time, I was training for a big race and totally overwhelmed with a bunch of things and I bought all my gifts late and hardly send out any Christmas cards. This year, I said, Things Will Be Different and so far, I'm chipping away at Christmas little by little and it's not freaking me out. Yet.

One thing I did manage to do last year was start scrap booking with Kiddo. We presented each set of grandparents (she has four) with a handmade book of pictures and art work from the previous year. You'd have thought we bought them all cars they were so excited. This year, all we have to do is choose from the best of this year's photos and drawings and make new pages. With four sets of grandparents (plus one album for hubby) this is a time consuming project, but it's so worthwhile. As a special touch, I had kiddo write a letter to each recipient telling them why they are so special to her and pasted them on a page.

Today, I got this newsletter from Family Fun Magazine with printable patterns for scrapbook decorations. If you're a scrapbooker or aspire to be one, I hope you'll check these out.

Maybe Christmas will actually be fun this year.... but I'll start drinking now just in case.

Ho ho ho.

6 comments:

Mrs Big Dubya said...

I've been holiday obsessed myself this year -- I'm not at all crafty, but with all the gift-giving and travel/no-travel decisions..... I get thinking about it earlier and earlier.

Anonymous said...

I'm trying to do a Made in China-free Chrismas this year, so I've jumped on the holiday train early to have a fighting chance. I think it's going to be a lot of homemade stuff for me this year. I better warn the recipients now. :)

Jane, Pinks & Blues

Chicky Chicky Baby said...

Christmas?? Just the thought of it gives me angina.

sandy shoes said...

Christmas? You're kidding, right?

Alex Elliot said...

It's not even Halloween yet! Or October for that matter. We've done the flipbooks from snapfish.com with pictures of the kids for the grandparents. I like you're idea though. A thoughtful gift that gets ride of junk..I mean precious works of art.. at my home.

Ruth Dynamite said...

Did you have to say "Christmas"?

Planning ahead is an outstanding concept. Wish I could do it.