Merry CHRISTmas to all! The hustle and bustle of the Christmas season is mostly over, but not quite yet for us, since we still have one more weekend of celebrating yet to go down here. A couple of our Besties came down to spend Christmas Day with us and ended up leaving that day. Justin had come down sick and they decided it was best to just get back home to Indiana. We'd taken them all around to see all the decor up in Florala, Alabama, down to the beaches, and around Lake DeFuniak's Christmas Reflections of lights circling the lake and park. It got a bit rough for me when I saw the litup dogs and realized this was my first Christmas without my HunniPi pup. I miss her all the time. Our week went like one Bestie was hit by Covid and (the weekend before) had ended up in the hospital. At this time, he's still pretty weak and that was a nasty way to not only spend Christmas Day, but Christmas Eve, which was his 56th Birthday. Ugh. One by one (or is that 2 by 2, lol) the number of folks staying here for the holiday dwindled until we had only 3 couples left of the bunch. It was a fun meal, though, and the company we had was very good, indeed! We spent a good amount of time saving pics and videos off our phones of the Grandbabies' holiday happenings and managed to get to Facetime all the kids. Princess Pistachio was the only Grand to have a Christmas Program- she rocked it in both dress and performance!! She and Peanut were surprised to get a go-cart from Santa Clause and learned how to safely drive it without Daddy... helmets were also left by Santa for these particular lessons. Mommy and Daddy had it delivered to our house and there was a video of Daddy crunched up inside it- giving it a breaking in (much like this Memaw once did with his first motorbike while he was getting off the bus on his 15th Birthday, lol)! There were several funny videos that kept us in stitches! Little Man Pecan excitedly counted the "sleeps" until it was time to go to his Aunt and Uncle's house in Canada for Boxing Day on the 26th. He's far more excited to be with his Cousins to play than getting gifts any day! While he did get some neat gifts, too. He's pretty much mastered the camera he got for his Birthday in November, as well as the Mini Phone he got from us for Christmas, but it's always cool when his Mommy and Daddy send pics they find on their iPhones when he's stolen their phone just to use the camera...this time pics of his Princess Sissy. That child is SO FREAKING TALENTED with filters and poses!! He'll be needing a big Canon before he's 10! Princess Rose is growing bigger by the day- with the world's most beautiful baby hair that gets longer by the day! Our blessings just keep on raining down: one of several heart-tugs that got to me in these past days was Peanut getting a new favorite tractor book at school. He decided he was going to make a video of himself reading it- just like Memaw does every year now that we're down in Florida. I just about bawled my head off all the way through it. It takes a lot of guts to put yourself "out there" and perform in front of folks, but these kids are taking the stage all on their own- in every important sharing way! (I;ve included both videos of the stories we each read- feel free to share from YouTube!)
Cole's reading of "An Otis Christmas" follows...
My Christmas Eve reading of "The Christmas Blessing" follows...
I hope you've had a bit of down time on your own to have some fun in your craft space, or at least surf through all the latest postings of ideas everyone else has crafted! I'm starting off the last 2-week inspirational theme of 2023! Over at Inspiration Ave, we're choosing our favorite products from The Funkie Junkie Boutiqe's shelves from the entire year, and I'm taking my fave Tim Holtz Thinlits Die; Santa Greetings, to create some very special ornaments for some very special babies in my life! Join me for a tutorial showing you how I created these cute, personalized ornaments...
Now, this Seasonal Kraft-Core that you see here, is a very long time, now retired item.
It was gifted to me by a Bestie earlier in the year, so I've tried to make use of it.
I used 2 sheets of the Christmas in reds for the main bodies of my ornaments.
But if you're looking for something similar to it, nothing comes closer than Tim Holtz's
Kraft-Stock paperie. It's very solid, won't tear, and holds its structure extremely well on its own.
I've included all four packages in my list, since I did use these as well:
