I am happy to say that I am 75% done with my shopping since we really only buy for the children of family and friends. Along with the gift for the children, I normally make a little something that can be enjoyed by the entire family. Last year's gift was a basket of homemade food goodies that included chocolate covered pretzel sticks, turtle stacks, candied pecans and peppermint bark. I have an idea of my family gift for this year, but I cannot tell, because some of those recipients may be lurking :)
The one thing that I love most about the holiday, outside of the obvious celebration of Jesus' birth, are the Christmas cards; both sending and receiving. I love seeing pictures of my loved ones along with reading about the wonderful events that have happened in their loves during the year. Christmas 2008 was the first year that I did not actually make our Christmas cards. Instead, I purchased the following cards from Swoozie's
and added the photo found at this post. I then printed a custom message and added a small grosgrain bow in a chocolate color to match the card's band. The plan this year is to do the same, except I did choose a new card. I feel bad about not creating something fun and unique by hand, but I want to focus more on enjoying the holiday and not slaving over it. To make myself feel better, I was able to locate a photo of my 2006 Christmas card...I actually like the store altered one more :) OKAY....I lied :)
So, blog family, what are you doing to prepare for Christmas?
