Christmas is 37 Sleeps Away

Amazing hey? Is it just me, or is this season sneaking upon us like a lion stalking a gazelle? I hardly noticed it coming, and now I am going to run like the dickens to prepare for it!

It is official, that my husband's ex has changed Christmas plans. It's very hard to swallow as it now affects my family (parents), my traditions (daughter) and my own heart (resentment).

But since I either have to change with the plan, as I really have no say, or I can rail against the change and not enjoy my Christmas as it's now dictated to me.

Adapt or be miserable.

I do intend on being miserable for a while. I'm enjoying my sulking and I have no desire to paint on a happy face or excitedly change traditions that have been in my families for over ten years due to one woman who needs to get her way.

I want MY way. Funny how we are as people, right?

So in my pity party, I've started a project that I saw on Pinterest some time ago. It's an activity advent calendar. The concept is simply to not just have a chocolate to eat every day till Christmas as our Advent Calendars in the stores provide, but to have something to do together to help build memories. I do like memories. And I do like building them.

Nothing seems to fill our kids up more than doing something as a family.

Here's the link that I first stumbled across this:

http://kimmccrary.blogspot.ca/2010/12/activities-advent.html

I won't take credit for coming up with the idea. It's way too smart for me to have come up with on my own, but I will run with it. It's such a great plan!

So this morning, I started to plan and organize activities and put them on some card stock.

I came across one stumbling block, and that is cutting the activities apart. I created them as "business cards" on Pages, so they would all be uniform and I wouldn't have to put a whole bunch of effort in to create my own boxes for my words. The business cards are the perfect size, and I was able to have fun with the font, and be assured that they would all be uniform sizes.

I'll need to pick up a paper cutter this week, to finish up separating the activities. I am way too much of a perfectionist to even risk cutting the stock paper with wavy lines.

But this is as far as I got today:

I'm using my evil energy for good. It's really nice to be able to work on a project for the family, even when I'm feeling very distant from family. It'll all come together yet at some point. I'll cool down, and life will continue to go on and be good and wonderful. And the bonus is that I'll have a project done that I would have wanted to get done to begin with! I'll update this project when I get it finished. Hopefully before December 1!

And so I'll end with: the sun is still in the sky, the dogs still lick my toes, and I still like Bailey's in my coffee.