When do the days slow down?

Got your shopping all done? Not me! I have hardly started! Have someone in mind who would just love one of these handmade boats? I'm putting in a plug for our friend, Jeff, who crafts these old workboats and paints them in a way that they are really durable. Kristin and I used to sell these for Jeff when we were doing our little shop and they make wonderful toys that really do float. Men loved them, too, to put in their windows. Lots of work for a really nice gift! If you are interested, here's their Etsy shop. His sister, Jennifer, makes wonderful fairy things, too! They have no idea I'm telling you about them, but if you do get one, please tell them I sent you! They're really nice people!


I'll bet there are thousands of posts with the titles "Where do the days go?", "Time is Flying", "I'm too Busy". It seems like that's too often one of my first thoughts! Stuff just happens all the time! My kids had started to decorate for me while I was baking bread one day, I didn't really say much, but the lights they hung were driving me a little crazy. Luckily, yesterday, my daughter Chantel mentioned she didn't like it, either, so YES!, we took them down. I really liked the idea in the Martha Stewart magazine where they hung a ribbon garland and put Christmas cards on it with clothespins that were trimmed with pretty Christmas paper. Probably sounds weird if you haven't seen it, but it's pretty cute. Actually, there were a lot of neat ideas in there MS this month.

I feel like I haven't exactly recuperated from the Vintage Gathering yet! I did get to get that laptop, though. That's another story. I got it after the salespitch the guy in the store gave me, he told me that I could download some drivers off the internet and then send the new computer back to XP version. Wrong! UNLESS, I'm a guru, I guess I'll be learning vista, which, so far, I'm not really very impressed with. I've spent the last few days trying to get the PC, the older laptop, and the new one networked. Long story with a long ending, one of those tear jerkers, I'm not kidding!

I'm pretty impressed with Laurie's cookie exchange! It all looks so pretty, so restful and relaxed; my idea of a neat holiday fun thing to do. Chantel and I did go to a girls function put on by Christian Women's Club in our town last Saturday. It was in the evening, and I couldn't get my camera set (due to system failure on the part of my left or right brain, can't remember which) (I guess one half of my brain wasn't being creative, the other half wasn't remembering LOL) It was held at "The Castle", which is owned by the Senior Citizens. It was all decked out for Christmas, they had some really neat antiques, I love the architecture of the building, too. That was another restful thing to do with my daughter and our friends.

Last Friday I found a bazaar I will never want to do again! It was a three hour sale, at 5-8, at the title company building in Longview. They basically gave over all the desks to use to put our wares on, no way could you put together much of a display. It wouldn't have been worth the trouble anyway, b/c across the room was a beer and wine tasting table, and everyone was turning in their tickets for their free glass of wine the title company sent them. It was for a good cause, I think it was ACS, but..... I'm not kidding, NO ONE was walking around looking at anything. They were all standing in clusters talking business, drinking, etc. It got so loud, which was actually good, b/c Kristin and I were talking and laughing about the whole thing in complete freedom of speech! Finally, I called my gorgeous son and told him, hey, you owe me a favor! You come over here and sit with Krisitn and I, and we'll be able to get all the women to come over and buy our stuff! He lives over there, so it wasn't like I was expecting too much, right? The more I thought about, the more I laughed, telling Kristin her I could make bets if we could get more attention. Well, maybe it was a corrupt thought....he wouldn't do it anyway, not even for his mama!

Tonite we (all five of my kids, Randy and I, the four grandkids, and two friends of the family), went to "Journey to Bethlehem" in Longview. There were so many people, the place was packed. If you've never been to it, and you live anywhere near, it is playing through Thursday at the 7th Day Adventist Church. They have acres of land where they set up a huge scene depicting the flight to Bethlehem, complete with tents, wonderful costumes, city-life with people selling their wares, Roman soldiers, real animals, campfires, etc. They make it really serious, my grandsons were stepping back away from soldiers, they were pretty believeable for them. And of course, there was an angel on a hillside telling the Good News and Mary and Joseph and the Babe. It's kind of a family tradition to go each year, remembering why we are celebrating in the first place.