I am finally getting the chance to update about the goings on here in my little corner of the world.
I have been running around like a little mama hen, clucking and trying to get all my Christmas "to-dos" completed before D-Day gets any closer :).
Today my mother and I spent pretty much the majority of our day Christmas shopping, for her and for several others in our family including a to-die for present for my husband that I just happened to come across, and I will not mention here in case he is reading this...(sorry honey, you'll just have to wait until Christmas!) My mother proceeded to hilariously try on just about every single pair of boots in the shoe store, just to say she had NO CLUE what she wanted. I was laughing at errr..I mean WITH her struggling to pull up the very tall leather boots, and then putting the short suede ones on the wrong feet and telling me, "These feel funny...I don't think they fit..." and I tried to hide my guffaw behind my hand and said, "Well it would probably help if they were on the right feet..." :D We love to pick on each other.
I wish I could have taken pictures of this comedic moment, but sadly my camera will NOT hold a charge and dies before I can take a few pictures. But hopefully with Christmas on the way very soon, that will all change...wink...wink..hint...hint Santa Clause ;)
I am also working on handmade gifts for several members of our family. I am machine and hand stitching, yarn haired dolls for the "babies". My almost 4 year old niece Alyssa (who's not such a baby anymore), my niece Ava (Chandler's sisters' daughter) whose second birthday is coming up very soon, and Chandler's, Stepmother's Son's daughter Gracie. Whew try saying that ten times fast. So far what you see up at the top is all I have got so far on the first doll. I hope to make some headway with all of them shortly, since here in the next few days I will have the time to actually sit down and work on them. I am trying to perfect the art of time management, but when you're a mom of a toddler, all your plans can kind of fall apart before they begin. So here's hoping I can get to cracking on my craft projects.
We went to two Christmas parties over the weekend. The first being a military one, for my husbands platoon. It was a bring your family kind of deal, so there were tons of soldiers and their significant others, and children galore, running the gamut from newborn to teenagers. Santa even decided to show up, which thrilled Layla immensely, that is until she was placed on his lap to take a souvenir photo and she burst into tears. Bless her heart. So now we have a $10 photo of Layla crying on Santa's lap. Ah tis' the season.
The next party was a family get together of my step-father's family. He has 14 brothers and sisters, but only 12 (including him) are still living. He is a twin. He has a twin sister. And there is also another boy-girl set of twins in there too. Pretty crazy huh. I was awed by the sheer size of that reunion. Tons of food, tons of people, ranging in age from 1 week old to 87 years old. Truly a sight to behold. We had fun going around telling stories about each little family that branched off from the original ones. The children, dancing and singing and generally having a good time. Layla didn't hold back with her charisma. The whole room was in love with her by the end of the night.
So needless to say it was an event filled weekend. This coming weekend we are having our traditional family "Cookie Day" where all the women in my family (and sometimes a few men, if they wish), get together and spend the majority of the day baking and eating cookies. Which I think is what the men really come for anyway, just to eat, and magically disappear when its time to clean up :).
I hope that everyone has a blessed week and hopefully soon, I will be able to add some pictures to my posts, if Santa deems me "Nice" enough to bring me a shiny new camera.
