'Twas A Week Before Christmas

First off, in case anyone was worried about my sleep deprivation experiment, I should report that it was a total bust. I went to bed around 1 AM, and slept for nearly 11 hours. I won't get nearly that much tonight, but that's okay.

Since waking up this afternoon, I've been in a frustrated Christmas frenzy. My original plan of writing out Christmas cards and taking them to the post office mutated into looking for the three small objects that were going to be the prizes for last year's Holiday Trivia, which have been floating around my desk ever since. I only found one of them, and I'm not sure it really was one of them.

I spent about two hours looking for the prizes, and for a little something I picked up for someone back in April. The latter item eventually turned up on my dresser, undernearth a bunch of other stuff. Yes, I'm disorganized and messy. Is this a surprise? I didn't think so.

The cards are ones I first saw at B&N three or four years ago. I didn't buy them at the time, and when I went back they were gone. Two years ago they were for sale again, and I snapped them up. Then I lost the box. Last year I found the cards again, but didn't actually get around to sending them. This year I hope to do better! And oh, yes, for the record, they are Happy Holidays cards. Since the people I care about are Christian, Jewish, Atheist and Wiccan, nothing else will serve.

So far I've written out cards for almost everyone I've received cards from, and collected addresses for a few more people. I've also decided that my extra Gandalf figure was meant to go to my godson last Christmas, to I put that with the stuff to be wrapped and sent. When will I wrap these things, and how will I send them? I don't know yet.

But having failed to find my trivia prizes, and having more stuff to get for people, I decided to go to the mall, and try to pick up small, flat, easily-mailed items for friends and prize-winners. I was there for two hours, trapped in crowds, staring at calendars and ornaments, Kokopelli magnets and little figurines. Nothing really cut it for me. Having listened to a rant on NPR about how terrible homemade gifts are (unless you're really talented or under age 10), I decided to make the gifts.

Next I set out to find the very specific craft material I would need to pull this off. Kaybee had a $12.99 kit that contained 6 sheets of it, along with a special purple machine and other stuff I didn't really need. Toys R Us didn't have the stuff at all. Michael's may possibly have some, but I doubt it. I'll check tomorrow. Desperate, I bought the $12.99 set and brought it home. It was my only Christmas gift-related purchase of the day.

Turns out the sheets are half the size I need. Oh, foo.

By the time I discovered this, I have already created several large designs for my trivia prizes on the laptop, plus a little poster for someone. Then I went back to the idea of a completely different project. I downloaded two MS Office templates, and have been playing with them for hours, off and on.

So, what am I giving to friends and family for Christmas? I'm not sure yet. If everyone ends up with Amazon gift certificates (or nothing at all), just know that I tried to do something creative. Really I did.

Karen

P.S. Part Six of my Heirs of Mâvarin excerpt has been posted.