Its December the 24th

Merry Christmas Everyone!

We won't have everyone together this year until the 27th, so Christmas will be a prolonged experience this year.

Mike has been off for a week of vacation already, but then he drove for 3 days picking up BigBuddy from college and bringing him back home. He has so many online classes it didn't make sense to keep him there and his best friend was coming home too to work, so they'll have fun hanging out around here now. 

The other really unusual thing is that I've been done getting ready for Christmas for over a week with the exception of one gift which I went and got yesterday. I was in that store and out so fast I could hardly believe I could call that Christmas shopping. 

Amazon has been my best friend this year, and has done an excellent job at making Christmas happen. I wrapped the gifts as soon as we had the tree up or whenever the packages arrived, made very little treats, and its not been stressful getting ready. There are other stressers in my life, mind you, lest you think by me being organized all is calm and bright. Hah!  Christmas and having company and holidays in general are hard for those who are not well, but somehow we seem to get through them every year. . . just so I don't have another New Years like last year, I think we'll be okay.

 I found this photo I forgot to post. It got more likes on the CTMH website than the one I sent out and this was a lot easier to put together. . . maybe I'll use this design in the future, but I'll probably change the sentiment. I really like to wish people, "Merry Christmas," so insert that mentally, okay? If You thought the cards that were sent in the mail were lame, look upon this and feel better. . . I try.

 These are the thank-you's I"ll be sending out after the holidays. Trying to keep them flat so USPS won't charge me extra postage.

 So, while MyMike was gone, this is how we spent our time.

I woke up and saw the moon still full and up, so I took a photo out my bathroom window, standing on the edge of my bathtub. Loved how pretty things look when the sun first comes up. I imagine Mike would have been surprised had he been getting up in the morning to see me standing on the tub, but when he's gone, its not a big deal. I'm just hoping the neighbors weren't drinking their coffee watching me in my jams.

 LittleBuddy took his high school finals all last week and spent a lot of time studying for them, and it served him well. I'm grateful he is a good student. He's also full of personality and a ham for the camera, but really such a nice boy. I'm grateful he's my son. Love him! We played a duet in church on Sunday, a medley of three Christmas hymns and he did a wonderful job on the viola. He was nervous. I've never heard him practice so much, but again, all his preparations paid off.  I'm also glad his dad and brother got through the snowy roads in time to be home to hear him. 

 I watched a couple of Hallmark movies while these two sat on the sofa with their I-touches or phones and kind of sort of watched it with me. And when I point the camera at them, most of the time, they either turn on the silly or ignore me, like in the picture below. I think she is such a beautiful girl. Look at those golden brown curls just naturally framing her face. Love her more than words can say!

 The biggest accomplishment of the time Mike was gone, however, was that I made time to really clean my desk, in fact my whole house. This may not look super clean, but for me, its absolutely Stellar!!! I moved the desk facing this direction now so that I can turn my chair to more easily quilt on the long table behind me. Mom is coming over for quilting tutorials after we've finished the holidays and I can't wait!

 I get goofy smiles, but its okay, he's studying, so I really should have not bugged him.

More ignoring by the beauty. That is her natural hair color and it is so gorgeous. I tell her regularly, people pay big bucks to get her natural color. She doesn't think she's beautiful but I know she is. Now if I could just get her to believe me. That would just Make Christmas for me! (And getting Cowgirl here would tie for being the absolute best too!)