A Busy 2 weeks!

I have had the past two weeks off of work, but there certainly wasn't a whole lot of "time off" involved! I was busy creating personalized Christmas gifts, making my own Christmas cards, wrapping gifts, and helping my dad get and wrap gifts. It was a lot of work on a little time. Thank goodness my sweet boy kept me laughing with his adorable antics. I took this little video of Gavin eating and I think I may have taught him a bad habit, but it is just so stinkin' cute when he does it!

I had wanted to make my own Christmas cards this year to save a little money and envisioned using a happy, smiling photo of Gavin with Santa. I had this adorable image in my mind and was all set to get it done. Well, things don't always work out as planned...

And that was the best shot of the bunch. Poor Gav. So, I ended up using the shocked face picture from my previous post to create what I thought was quite a cute card.

I was so busy in the few days before Christmas that by the end of each day I was ready to collapse from exhaustion. Gavin shared my sentiment.

My Christmas gifts included a photo collage from Gavin to Daddy, a photo book for my dad from all of us kids that included pictures of my mom and him over their 30 years together, and cookbooks with all the recipes from my mom's recipe box for my three siblings. The cookbooks turned into quite the ordeal, too. I had begun working on them in early November and had decided to create them as digital scrapbooks (note to self: don't ever try to learn something new when you have a short deadline to get it done; being a perfectionist makes this increasingly difficult. Ugh.). I didn't even know what digital scrapbooking was when I began the cookbooks and now I could probably write a book about it. I scanned all my mom's recipe cards in her own handwriting and created a 76-page cookbook. I was very happy with the finished product, but it took several days, many tears, a few mini-meltdowns, three do-overs, three trips to the printing company, and a couple computer freeze-ups before it was done. Thank goodness Gavin was a trooper and went along with me without complaining.

My siblings were all very grateful for the gift and the books truly turned out beautiful. I made one for myself and my dad, too. I was originally going to have them made into photo books, but after talking with mom-in-law, she helped me decide on purchasing regular 12" x 12" scrapbooks and having the pages printed so that more could be added later if we recreate some of the recipes that my mom didn't have cards for. I love the finished product and I know my mom would be proud.

Since creating the cookbooks, I am now a big fan of digital scrapbooking and am planning on creating a baby book for Gavin. I love the convenience of having unlimited use of the elements and it's cheaper than traditional scrapbooking. There are so many cute freebies online, too. I found some beautiful baby boy theme kits that I am anxious to use.

Luckily, amidst all the hubbub, Matt and I got to squeeze in a trip to Medieval Times to help us unwind and temporarily forget about the holiday stress. It was so much fun!