Live-Love-Laugh-Create

Woohoo! I actually got to stamp yesterday! I did lots of cutting for something you'll see later in the week but most importantly I got the teacher gift done! Yay! Since Kyler has a male teacher I wanted it to be very simple and guyish. He loves to fly fish and loves salmon (they had a whole unit on the life cycle of salmon) so I decided to borrow the set Fly Fishin' from my friend Kathy (thanks Kathy!) and make a note card set. I just stamped three fish and colored it in with colors from a picture of a certain type of salmon (can't remember which one) that Kyler picked out. I stamped one reel or fly on each envelope and then to finish I stamped and then colored the fishing scene on the front of the folder. I'm still not sure I like that...I may do it again with some layering to make it look a little nicer but for now it's fine. I used velcro to close the note card folder instead of ribbon or twine simply because I stamped directly on the envelope. I'll probably change that if I re-do the folder.

I got all of Todd's Christmas presents wrapped and under the tree last night. The boys each picked something out of my pile of stuff and wrapped those up too. It's fun to see gifts arriving under the tree! This week the rest of the presents will get wrapped and put under the tree. Santa doesn't come to our house (and yes, my kids are very good) so the only real *surprise* is the stockings on Christmas morning. Jon, my middle son, leaves on Saturday the 23rd to go to his dad's so he will be opening his stuff on the 22nd. Very exciting 'cuz we got him something really neato!

Anyway, today is church and then we will be going to a friend's house for brunch. THEN, this afternoon we will be making gingerbread houses for the kids to decorate. We do them homemade style. I mix up the gingerbread, Todd and the boys put them in the Longaberger mold that I have and then they get baked up. When they cool the boys get to decorate them. This year we are trying candy bark to make them stick together. We've tried lots of things and so far the sides of the houses have been so heavy they fall apart. Maybe we should just do half the amount in the mold? That's an idea to try!

Anyway, have a spectacular Sunday everyone!