Final Countdown

17 days to go.

Here are a few more Christmas-related items I've completed. There are LOTS more, so even though I won't be taking orders after tomorrow, I'll continue posting as I finish them. Next up is hopefully teacher gifts. I don't think any of our teachers read my blog, so I think I'm safe.

I'm trying not to have a panic attack about our Christmas cards. It's the only nice family picture we take all year long, so it's a big deal to me, and it's the only correspondence we have with many dear friends. At this time last year our cards were printed, addressed and probably even in the mail. I don't even know what we're doing this year. Our first attempt at a family photo was a huge fail. Getting four heads of long hair ready for pictures is a daunting task, not to mention the tedious outfit coordination, hopeful weather cooperation and careful site selection. A couple of weeks ago we primped, dressed, traveled to the location, and posed. After 4 clicks, I knew it wasn't going to work due to the freezing cold winds, missing tripod screw and faulty camera remote. I got to practice several of the more challenging fruits of the spirit on the long drive back home. This is one of the test shots that I actually love, except for all the hair in the face and the big shadow over Ava. The girls (and my long-suffering husband) tried so hard to make it work, but it just wasn't meant to be.

One thing I'm not going to panic about is Christmas shopping. We're not doing a lot this year and I'm making a lot myself. I'm shopping etsy.com and trying to buy child- and slave-labor free (it's harder than you think) as much as possible. A blog post I read this morning here was especially convicting. My kids have so much already, haven't really asked for much, and I know my own tendency to overdo it in the name of Christmas merry-making. It's more fun, anyway, to help others in need, unless you were with me yesterday in T*rget while my girls were shopping for their Angel Tree kids, and it escalated into a huge disagreement about who got what shirt for which girl. *sigh* We're still working on it.