Catching Up

Besides my recent "Almost Christmas" post, I've been away from the computer for most of the month.

I've been busy!

Last night I spent some time catching up on everyone else's blogs.  I missed a lot!  Broken bones, photo shoots, vacations, climbing Mt. Kilamanjaro...you guys are so cool.  Catching up with everyone took a while, but was so much fun.  

So what have I been doing?

All Christmas stuff.  Tons of stuff for Christmas.  Which is why I'm so glad it's over.

I made an army of teddy bears (and a bunch of dolls, too) for my Christmas charity.  Usually we do a Sub for Santa family, but this year I decided on something for the kids at Primary Children's Hospital.  I'm still making more, actually.

*I made these beautiful stockings.  One for me, one for Tessa, one for my friend Natalie, and one for Tessa's teacher at school, Ms. McKee.  Pier1 had them in their ad, and my mom and I plagarized them.  I love when we do that!  They turned out really great.

*I made Tessa and Asher robes for Christmas.  She loves hers and wears it all the time, he hates his and won't keep it on.  Ironically, I have a picture of him wearing it, but not one of her.

*I made Tessa a big quilt, and a tiny matching one for her dolls.  

I bought an unfinished wooden cradle, then sanded and painted it. I made a little mattress and pillow for it, and a receiving blanket (in addition to the quilt.)

*I made her a pair of Christmas hair bows, and a cute winter one, too.  I also painted a cute sign that says "Snow" to use as a decoration after I put the Christmas stuff away.  Unnecessary, but cute.

*I coordinated the teacher gifts for Tessa's teachers, Ms. McKee and Mrs. Richards.  Sent home flyers to all the parents, asking for money, then purchased the gifts.  I threw the class Christmas party.  

I also taught an enhancement to the class one afternoon at the begining of the month.  We made cute little gingerbread man cards for their parents for Christmas.  I traced them onto sandpaper for them, and they cut them out and put them on their cards.  When they were done we rubbed the gingerbread men with cinnamon sticks and cloves to make them smell like gingerbread. Clever, huh?! I didn't come up with it myself - but it was still cute.

*I baked so much (mostly bread, though there were lots of cookies and cakes, too) that my current weight is an honest-to-God Christmas miracle. 

*Almost all of my computer time was spent making a book for my parents Christmas.  One of those photo books that everyone from Wal Mart to Kodak makes.  Only I went through a company called Heritage Makers that is ridiculously customizable.  This company offers so many bells and whistles on their products that you’d have to spend 3 days looking through the options to get an idea of what’s available.  Very cool.  Except for the fact that I’m the type that feels like if there’s an option available I just have to check it out.  On top of that, I first had to sneak into my parents house while everyone was gone and steal about a million pictures spanning about 40 years. (Except I didn’t, my dad was home for lunch the day I went.  Oops.) Then I had to scan those pictures in at home.  But first we had to buy a new printer/scanner because mine kind of crapped out on me. 

Anyway, the book begins with the birth of my parents, skips right ahead to when they began dating, and then goes all the way up through today.  It’s not only pictures, but a lot of text – stories, memories, etc.  It was quite the undertaking, but I’m very excited about it.  About a week before Christmas I had my parents over for dinner and showed them the book on the computer.  I had some questions for them – information that I needed to fill in the stories, mostly.  I also wanted to be sure they were happy with the layout, the pictures I’d chosen, etc.  They wanted some pictures added, which I’m still waiting on.  Once I have those I’ll get it printed.  I’m excited to see how it turns out.  I made a Snapfish book a few months ago and it printed very dark, I was a bit disappointed.  I’m hoping this is better.  In case you're interested - here's the preview.  Look how cute I was as a kid!

My Book

The rest of my computer time was spent assembling a class directory for Tessa’s school class.  It was my gift to the class - along with a cute Christmas pencil.  I modeled it after a ward directory and left a spot for them to put a school picture next to each person.  It turned out really cute.

I think that's it.  December was a busy month.  

Here are pictures of some of my projects :)