Curse You, Goodwill Store!!!!!

I have big plans for A Very Crafty Christmas. Obviously, since my entire extended family reads this blog, I can't go into much detail, except for the girls' presents, one of which, is felted blocks for Greta. Wool felt being kind of expensive, I had the great idea of getting a few Goodwill sweaters and felting them myself to use for my Christmas crafting. So tonight I had Martin drop me off at the Goodwill while he drove around and put the girls to sleep. The Men's section was pretty much a bust, but the Women's section held a pretty fine selection... OF THE CUTEST SWEATERS EVER. I went through in fast-forward speed, feeling everything and then if something felt like wool, I'd check the tag. 100% wool in a nice color made it into my cart. But then I'd look at it again... just my size.... name brand.... REALLY FREAKING CUTE.... And so, I bought 7 sweaters at the Goodwill tonight, and right now 4 of them are in the washing machine on the hot cycle. Yes, I kept three for myself. I just couldn't part with them!!!! And besides, as Martin so helpfully pointed out, I am in great need of more sweaters. See? If he says it's true, my purchases are totally justified.

My crafting ideas are getting a little out of hand though. Last night I told Martin I was thinking about knitting Bella the same pair of slippers I'm knitting Anja (which I have been working on for WEEKS, and which have been climbing the ranks of my "Project From Hell" list, inching their way up to the tippy-tippy-top) and Martin literally begged me--he actually said "I'm begging you"-- not to start another Christmas project. And he's right. I am completely overloaded. I have a total of twelve handmade gifts to give this year, and only two completed. Some of them I haven't even found/bought the supplies!!! And this doesn't include any of the regular shopping for people we've got to do, which I'm hoping to keep at a minimum, but still there are always those necessary little details. Our Schap Family Christmas is going to be held a few days early, so that gives me a little bit of timeline priority for those gifts, which is kind of calming. I'll have at least a week to get everything else done after that.

If you haven't been keeping up with Martin's blog, this will be news to you: We snagged a couple of tricycles from our fabulous neighbors, The Cooks, before they moved. There's a regular sized one and a smaller one, and both are in need of some work. One has a broken seat and they are both pretty rusty. Martin has big plans to repaint them, and he's been looking at online tutorials for things like plaids and stripes and adorable color combinations and accents. He's really excited to get started on them, and I'm really excited for Christmas morning when Anja sees her very own trike sitting in the living room under the Christmas tree. I am so insanely excited for Christmas with Anja this year. I can't WAIT until they put the nativity scene up at St. Boniface--she's going to LOVE IT. She loves our Christmas tree and she loves candy canes. We've been listening to Christmas music and hanging out in our cozy, twinkly front room, and it has this wonderful calming affect/effect (I will never, ever, ever, understand how to use those words) on our house. We spent yesterday and today making gingerbread cookies, which are delicious, and we've been filling our bellies with junk food and happy thoughts. My mom last year for Christmas gave us a gorgeous Fontinini nativity and Anja adores it. She carries the baby Jesus around with her everywhere. Very cute!

If I ask Anja, "what do you think [insert any name here] wants for Christmas?" She will answer with her cat sounds. If I ask her what SHE wants for Christmas, she will answer with her cat sound, with the specification of "brown."

I love the holidays. And it was completely awesome having all our friends in town and actually getting to hang out with them. Just like normal people!! Amazing!