Merry Christmas!

Greetings from our family to yours ... 

This is the first year in a long time that I haven't gotten Christmas cards out. I feel kind of bad about it, but I just can't dwell on it. There just wasn't time. I was busy designing and filling orders, I did a holiday show, a graduation celebration, presents to make, and a death in the family to name a few. There was just too much ... too much ... too much. We didn't get a tree until right before Christmas and not from the tree farm. Usually we dress in a thousand layers, go on an adventure and hunt down our perfect tree, topping it off with hot cocoa. This year, we settled for the Lowe's parking lot. Not a lot of fun or excitement there. With everything going on, I had a hard time feeling the Christmas spirit. It was lucky we ended up having any gifts under the tree. Thankfully, my husband was able to get that stuff done and my lovely elf, Grace, made sure everything was wrapped. We pulled it together, but it was very low-key this year. And maybe that's not all that bad. 

I joked a couple weeks before Christmas that I didn't have a holiday picture of the kids yet, so in lieu of that, I may just have to use the collage above. That really didn't end up being a joke because that's what all I ended up doing. The pictures are from left to right, top to bottom ... Phillip and Grace snuggling with their faithful pup Suki, a piece of my work that I have on my keychain with the words, "Peace and All Good", the four of at Grandma's funeral lunch laughing and trying to line up for an extended family picture, at Grace's performance in "The King & I" last summer, Grace from her performance in the Ghosts of Galesburg Tour this fall, and Phillip dressed up for a skit the cousins were performing. All good times, and all good memories. So, yeah, I'm feeling a little twinge of guilt, and, yeah, I'll work on getting a few New Year's greetings out a little later. But, for the moment, I'm just going to be happy that things have slowed down a bit. I don't have much on my plate right now, and I'm going to enjoy it. It'll all be back to crazy way before I know it ... ;)