I do like getting snail mail and I do like sending it. I have seen others offer to send holiday cards so here is my own offer to send you one. If you like to get a card from me please fill out this form by December 6 and I will try my best to get it to you soon! I can’t promise that it is a home made one like the ones above but we will see (or you will when you get the card). I found some cute ones at our local Barnes and Noble and I just could not resist getting a pack.
I already feel very festive today. December 1 marks the day when the Advent calendars are handed out and both my kids got one (they must have been nice this past year). And this year it is also the day when the first candle is lit to mark the first of the four Sundays before Christmas Eve. My big window already has the snowflakes hung up and it is getting more cozy by the second.
I hope you are having a good start into the month of December, too. Do you have any special plans for the holiday season coming up? If you don’t celebrate maybe you have something special coming up, too?
This Saturday was over way to quickly and I even was already out of the house at 7:50am. I am a night-owl so this time is early for me but I signed up for a class at 8:20am. My gym membership includes 8 classes per month and since I will already miss the Thanksgiving week I better make sure that I take those classes in time.
I spend a good chunk of my day playing with the Cricut again. I want to make a T-shirt for my daughter’s birthday and am going to use iron on vinyl for that. I did choose a picture she hopefully will like and had the Cricut do the cutting. I still need to weed it (that’s what removing the excess is called) and then put it on the T-shirt itself. I also finished up our calendars for next year and the holiday cards. Usually I make one with pictures of the kids and also give it to the grandparents. This year it hopefully comes in time so I can give it to my BIL when he comes to visit. Shipping packages to Europe has gotten so expensive in the last couple of years so this visit really helps on that front. It’s now harder to find good pictures to use. When they were little there were soooo many pictures, now I have to beg them to be allowed to take one of them and then in a lot they make funny faces. I still love the process though. Same goes for the holiday cards. Going through the pictures always reminds me what fun we had throughout the year and we really did make some good memories this year – first on our trip to Germany at the end of last year and then to New York in the spring and not to forget the roadtrip in the summer. I usually use Shutterfly. I already have all our dates saved (I add the family birthdays and special dates on the calendar already), so it saves a little time on that front. I have not looked at any other services in recent years. Maybe I should look around again? Not this year though since the order went out today.
We did end up going to the holiday lights event in Berkeley and seeing the lights was really fun. Most of the shops were already closed when we got there but we had dinner at a Mexican restaurant.
Oh, and my birthday present was picked up today and is now waiting in the garage until my actual birthday (the e-bike). I filled out a bunch of forms already to sign up for the warranty, to get the rebate our county offers when you buy an e-bike and to register it with the bike index what helps supposedly if it gets stolen (hopefully that never happens).
How is you weekend going so far? Do you make photo cards or calendars and do you have a favorite vendor to order from?
This morning my husband send me a message from the gym with a picture:
Rockin’ around the Christmas tree
So I guess it begins.
The next thing was that my son requested a Santa Hat. I am not sure if something happened at school or why but his reasoning was that Halloween is over and now he wants to transition to the happiest season of all.
Newest knitting project
Dutiful mom that I am I went ahead and did some online search and found this pattern for a Santa Hat that looks pretty straight forward. I went ahead and stopped by JoAnns to get yarn after my fitness class last night. And today I picked up the right sized needles at my local yarn store after finding out that all I had at home was to small. Do you think I will be responsible if he will be know as the boy who wore a Santa Hat all of November and December?
Are you already preparing for the holidays?
I voted
To be honest, to some extend I am just trying to distract myself from the happenings in this country I call home now today. I voted right after I got my ballot so there was nothing left for me to do today. Being able to vote is such a privilege. I am anxious like so many others. I may hope for an outcome I wish for but I am prepared for the worst. Whatever happens we will still have our local community and that is something. There are many kind and engaged people around these parts. I am dreading the questions if we would move back to Germany if you know who gets elected. We are not planning to. This is our home now, too and the kids don’t know anything else. At this point it would be really hard for them not to speak of our own culture shock after 19 years.
Home here and there 