whew!

and it's over. thank goodness! i love christmas, but every year i say i'll start earlier so that it's not as stressful, and every year i fail dismally!

i know i'm terribly behind, what with christmas stress and feeling so crappy this month, but hopefully i'll be able to catch up soon!

once all the stress was dealt with and the family fights were settled, it was a very good christmas. lots of spoiling, lots of laughter, and lots of yummy food! i posted some recipe cards that i made last year, with a few of our family recipes on them. mom made the cheese ball on christmas eve, i'm excited to dig into it tonight! her cheese ball is amazing.

i need to make more cards with a few more of our favourites, like the amazing jello salad she makes for dinner, and the banana cream pie we always have for desert (pah on pumpkin, that's for thanksgiving!). considering that i'm allergic to dairy, christmas is very filled with it, and i can't resist eating everything. my birthday is only a few days before christmas, and every year i request my aunt's no-bake cheesecake for desert, filled with cream cheese and whipped cream!

everyone seemed to really like the gifts i bought them, which is always gratifying. i was really happy with my choices this year. i got spoiled too, an art piece for my studio, a decidedly yummy looking book of cupcake recipes (root beer float cupcakes anyone?), a vintage snowglobe in my stocking (snowglobe LOVE!), a gorgeous teardrop shaped pendant of lava rock, a bunch of craft books that are currently snowed in but i'll get soon, money from relatives (which is awesome, cause my serger died and NEEDS servicing!), and my brother's going to spend an entire day helping me clean my studio. i'm determined that one day i will have it completely clean!

so yes, a very good christmas. this was apparently the first time in 100 years that every place in canada had snow for christmas, and ohhh, did we have snow! we had at least 2 and a half feet, though it's condensed down a bit since, as the weather's warmed up. we're usually lucky to get a few inches in january or february! though it's been a royal pain in the butt, since we're not equipped to deal with snow here, i'm still loving it. it was a fabulous bonus present!


here's a belated wish for you all, and hopefully i'll have more eye candy up soon!





today is boxing day in canada, which means SALES SALES SALES! though i seriously contemplated going to the 40% off everything in the store sale at the scrapbooking store, i'm restraining myself, and leaving the shopping to other members of my family who are much more willing and able to stand in lines than i am! i may do some online shopping in the next few days, but we'll see. Leslie at Alpha Stamps will be posting sales and free giveaways daily on their blog, starting tomorrow, so i'll be watching that for sure!

in the meantime, about 7 or 8 years ago i kind of started my own tradition of cleaning/organizing on boxing day, so i'm going to start sorting through the giant box of papers in my bedroom... not so fun, but it'll be nice to be get rid of the box!

on the free side of things, Lisa Vollrath did her annual Holiday Printables Countdown again this year. I was so far behind on e-mails and such that i almost missed it, but they're still up right now! she doesn't leave them up much after christmas, so snag them now! and don't forget that they're not entirely free, they're linkware, so post a link before downloading!