Christmas...

is coming! Shhh, don't tell my mom. She gets all agitated about Christmas. I usually do too. But this year I'm not working so I'm hoping to not get all out of sorts. You see by the time Christmas break rolls around I usually feel like Christmas has come and gone because of all the things going on at school. I'm hoping to have a more relaxed feel about it this year. Maybe not though since we're going to Montana for Christmas and my mom is not happy about it. Fired up might be a better way to put it. She's mostly only mentioned it to my sister though. I'm not thrilled about going either but there's not much for me to say or do about it. It's the way the schedule works. I've already started planning for Christmas though. The 2P's challenge for tomorrow...Monday(I'm doing it early!) is What handmade gifts are you thinking of giving this year?
I love to make gifts. I usually make a list of the people I want to give gifts to and then I start trolling for ideas. I go to the library and look at books. I surf the internet. Then I make a list of the ideas. Frequently I've accumulated ideas throughout the year too. So here is a short list of my ideas so far.

1. Mother in Law... a necklace for her glasses. She is forever leaving them somewhere!
2. Older nephew... a box like I saw on Gina's website to keep all his weird little treasures in.
3. Ornaments for some people I know.
4. A doll for my neice.
5. A blanket for Owen.
6. Biscotti for my Father in Law.

I also have some other ideas about things to make. Some slippers, mittens, toys for some friends who are having babies, tote bags, and sets of cards. I have a scrapbook I made for my MIL two years ago. I need to update it for her. I love to scrapbook but I don't have a enough time most of the time for the juices to flow well. So I have lots of scrapbook ideas but not much to show for it! Unless you look at my friend Lori's scrapbook. Then you can see a lot of my work!!

I'm hoping to have a little baking fun with my girlfriends again for the holidays. Two years ago we had a bake sale at school to raise money for one of our students who had cancer. So we used the school kitchen to bake in. We had such a great time. By fate or whatever cosmic karma is working for us Lori, Maggie, Nikki and I have gotten to be good friends. Lori is the big sister. She is the person who has experience and knows lots of things. She is also the nice one. Nikki is the little sister. Mostly because she's the youngest. And being the youngest she knows all the slang and popular stuff. Maggie is the Fashionista. She is always put together and coordinated. She is also a good party planner. I guess I don't really know what I am in the group. But I fit in and I like that. Together we tend to be noisy and goofy and silly. On Friday we had a belated birthday dinner for me at Maggie's house. She wanted to cook for us so she could try out a new recipe that she wants to make for her family after Thanksgiving. We had a great time. Ate, talked and talked. Watchted Grey's. Here's a couple pictures of my goofy friends.
They were singing Happy Birthday while flailing their arms. Hence the blurred photos! And they can't get upset for me posting them on my blog because they are so blurred even if you did see them out in public you couldn't tell who they were because of the bad pictures! Oh, and those of you who do know my girlfriends know that most pictures of them are blurred! Nikki is frequently making a goofy face for pictures. Maggie runs from pictures. And Lori is usually behind a camera so you can't get her picture! Although I did get some great shots the last time we were all at the Cheesecake factory. Maybe I'll post those sometime. What do you think girls!?!?