It happens to me every year at about this time.  Even in the midst of planning leisurely picnics and making raspberry lemonade, I wake up one summer morning in a Christmas frenzy.  I start day dreaming about peppermint cocoa, knitting socks (a task I like to start, but never complete), and sewing small felt snowmen to decorate all of the presents.

I find that the only cure for this is a morning spent with a fat stack of Christmas magazines.

I’m sure I’ll be back to my regularly scheduled summertime thoughts soon.  Does this happen to anyone else?

P.S. – Don’t miss out on the free stationery give away!  There’s plenty of time left to enter.  :-)

Are you gearing up for Easter at your house?  As a kid, I don’t think I ever appreciated how much work all that egg dyeing and deviled-egg making can be.

The Easter Bunny who visited our house took his job of hiding the eggs very, very seriously.  Some of those hunts went on for hours.  Eventually, our little cat, Misty, would take pity on us and lead us to the eggs we missed.  When I say that, it makes Misty sound really sweet and helpful which she was most definitely not.  She was more of an aloof bobcat, but she did really get a kick out of the Easter egg hunts.  She would casually circle around the hidden spot with what looked very much like a Cheshire cat smirk.  Lots and lots of good memories — even the years that consisted of my mom frantically chasing around my sister who was more into throwing the eggs than collecting them.  I think my sister may be getting a little bit of payback for that now with her own children.

I miss the days where we carried tiny purses that just barely fit our little white lace gloves inside.  Why don’t we get to wear those now?  Hmmm…

I hope you have  a wonderful day no matter how you choose to celebrate.  Best wishes, Kelly

Today is my birthday.  This year, instead of a cake, I have a yummy Kahlua cream cheese pie.  I would take a picture for you, but I’ve already eaten half of it.  How about some pictures of cute animals eating cake instead (from my birthday card)?

Birthdays are funny to me.  Some years they are great.  Some years it’s like they didn’t even happen.  I have a good feeling about this one.

Our holiday was lovely.  I hope yours was too.  This is a picture of my niece participating in our most solemn family  tradition – the counting of the presents.  Ok, she might be a bit young to be counting.  Maybe just asking the age old question, “is this one for me?”

We are still relaxing here and soaking up more days where the biggest topic is when we should venture out of our cozy lair to find more food.

We do have some goals this week (selling a couch, painting a room, etc), but it’s nice to know that none of them are rushed.  There’s still plenty of time to spend in fuzzy socks.  Hope you can do the same.

The fudge is ready; the presents are wrapped.  Wishes have been made.  We will be loading up the cars here in a little bit to make the short drive to our parent’s house.  I’ll be signing off here for a few days while we spend time with family, open gifts, and eat too many sweets.

Yesterday, we took part in our annual Christmas tradition: the making of the Christmas tags.  For the past 5 years or so, my husband and I have collaborated on our gift tags.  Some years they’ve been elaborate.  Other years, more simple.  However, I think this year might just be my favorite.

All of the presents have a North Pole shipping theme.  We wrapped them in two shades of brown kraft paper and tied them with red and white ribbons.  My husband gets a ton of credit on the design execution.  I was busy tying all the bows.

The main label looks like this:

However, my favorite part are the Christmas shipping stickers.  They are extremely silly (like us).

We’d love to share our Christmas stickers with you as a present from the Lee-Creel family.  You can download them here.  The download includes a 8 1/2″ x 11″ sheet with several different sizes.  We print them on full sheet white label paper and cut them out using a paper cutter.  Enjoy!  (These are for personal, non-commercial use only.  Thanks for your understanding.)

May you have a wonderful holiday full of many good things and unexpected blessings.  See you soon!