bearing gifts

Yesterday I blogged about how I was going to make a gingerbread house out of graham crackers last night. Well, the best laid plans . . .

It seems that *everyone* is down with the stomach bug.

We already had our share in October so we're really hoping that we don't get sick again.

Out of the six girls who were supposed to get together, four had the bug I think and one's kids did. Oh my.

We decided to call it off and reschedule a cookie swap for the new year.

Cookies aren't just for Christmas, right?

Anyway, I had stained glass cookies ready to go so I decided to add them to the hot chocolate mixes we'd already made for gifting to our neighbors.

Last night I decided that I needed to treat myself since I hadn't gotten to have girls' night so I put aside the to do list and when my little munchkin was in bed I broke out the supplies for my Christmas scrapbook.

I made a Christmas scrapbook for my mom several years ago with one layout for each year of the Christmases of our family.

I was excited to start one of my own and my mom gave me the album and pages for Christmas when we celebrated with them after Thanksgiving so I was ready to go.

Last night I was able to complete the cover page, 2007 and get 2008 well under way.

It will be fun to look back at our Christmases through the years as our family grows.

Anyway, getting out the scrapbooking stuff reminded me of some Christmas stencils I've had since childhood and I had a good time transforming some plain brown paper gift bags into something more festive for bearing gifts to our neighbors.

Thank you Jacquie and Julie for both making this possible! I'm sure I wouldn't have managed to accomplish gifts to our neighbors on my own and it's something I'm glad to be able to do.