Month: December 2016

I finally took some pictures of the kiddos.  They aren’t perfect, and next year I am totally hopefully finding a way to have a pro take some for us, but nevertheless I’m glad to have something.  I even got a few pics of Xander that are actually pretty good.  🙂

The secret?  Candy canes.  lol.  Baby boy never sits still so most of the portrait type pics I have involve Mia sitting like a little angel while Xander is a blur running off in the background.  But he apparently loves candy canes.  🙂

My other trick was to have Kate read them a book so that there was hope they would sit still.  It worked!

The hat was also a hit.  And you can’t see it since she’s sitting down, but Kate has on her red cowboy boots.  🙂

This was a new spot for me to take pictures (but apparently a popular one.  lol.  We saw at least 2 actual photographers out there) and by the time I found the best spot the light was fading fast as were the babies.  And then my camera battery died.  lol.  I was going to drag everyone out again the next day to try again, but then RaptorDad pointed out that that was crazy.  So here they are!  My imperfect, but good enough, Christmas card pics.  You know, for the Christmas cards that we aren’t sending this year.  😉

 

January is coming.  A new year, a new beginning.  December has been hard, y’all.  I wasn’t really feeling the Christmas spirit, although I tried to keep things fun for the kids.  RaptorDad, bless him, really stepped it up this year as far as holiday traditions go.  Plus, I must have been an exceedingly good girl this year as Santa brought me the fancy Kitchenaid mixer that I’ve been dreaming of for the past 14 years.  🙂  And since his elves at Amazon shipped it in its original packaging, I got it a week early!  RaptorDad was so mad that his surprise was ruined, but I loved having it for Christmas baking.  I even tackled the oft requested merengue pie.  I foresee a loooooooot more baking in my future.

But January.  I always love January.  It always seems so shiny and new and full of endless possibilities.  I love making lists and goals for January.  Why wait!  I’m going to make a little mini to do list for the week right here to keep myself accountable.  Starting with blogging!  I’m shooting for 3 times this week.  With actual pictures and finished projects.

1.  Blog 3 times.  Shoot, maybe I’ll even go nuts and have some more blog posts cued up for next week!
2. Write and mail thank you notes.
3. Mail Raptor’s Girl Scout Christmas Cards.  I even bought stamps today.
4. Pictures of the kids.  Let’s be honest, Christmas Cards aren’t happening this year, but I at least want some pictures.
5. Pack away Christmas stuff.  I know, I know.  I should leave it out until epiphany, but I’m just done this year.
6. Work on December Daily.  I have 9 days done; I’d love to get at least 5 more done this week.
7. 1 garbage bag of clutter from art room.
8. 1 garbage bag of clutter from my room.
9. Deal with laundry nightmare in the babies’ room.
10. Find out where to donate cloth diapers.  Sorry Mother Nature, we lasted about a year longer than I expected with twins in cloth, but the jig is up.

And since I promised pictures of finished projects, did I ever share pictures of the babies’ stockings?  I finished right in the nick of time.  (I literally finished Mia’s stocking on November 30th lol.)

And here it is!  The cording for the marionette strings is not a task that I ever wish to undertake again, but I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out overall.

I love the nordic feeling of Xander’s.  🙂  The one weird thing is that their names went on the backs of the little hanging ornament/ snowflakes.  I might end up creating something new for that down the road, but for now, I’m just thrilled that they are done.

I’d say that I was going to take a break from the felt for a while, but I just told my sister that I would make my brother-in-law one so it looks like I’ll be playing with felt for a while more.  Luckily there’s still plenty of Gilmore Girls to watch.

Oh my.  Perhaps I should just accept that I only seem to be capable of blogging once a month.  ::sigh::

I have a strict policy of keeping things happy and light on the blog, but y’all, I just can’t right now.  My best friend lost her battle with lung disease this weekend and I am just broken.  I am going to try to continue with December Daily, but let’s just say that the holidays have lost their sparkle for me this year.

With that said, I’m still setting some crafty goals for December.  How’d I do in November?  It was hit or miss.

1.  Take down Halloween decorations.  Done.
2. Make some kind of handprint canvas with the babies. Nope.
3. Finish stockings.  I actually accomplished this amazingly enough.
4. NaNoScrapO!  This was a fun idea, but it kind of fell by the wayside as the month went on.  Maybe I’ll get more organized and try again next year.
5. Oh February 2015.  I not only finished February, I finished March which filled the little gap I had.  Now I’m caught up through August 2015.  Which is to say, I’m still ridiculously behind.
6. Felt Letters.  I didn’t finish them, but I’ve made some progress.
7. FALL letters. Nope.
8. Make a new calendar.  Like this one.  Done.
9. Christmas Card pics.  Still need to do these.  The weather has been so gross though.
10. Blog!  lol.  I blogged all of twice last month.  I don’t anticipate this month being any better.

Onto December.

1.  Finish felt letters.  I only have 8 to go.  I want them done this week.
2. December Daily.  There’s no way that I’ll finish this in December, but I would like to try to at least take some pictures every day.
3. Christmas photo shoot.  Need to make this happen.
4. Order Christmas cards.  Meh.  I usually love Christmas cards, but they just might not happen this year.  Wow.  I am really setting the bar low with these goals.
5. Um…  I’ve got nothing.  So it looks like just 4 goals this month.  I’m cool with that.