Christmas Shopping Done!

An exhausting week.

After a spur-of-the-moment trip to a craft fair, all of my Christmas shopping is actually done.  Well, not quite done for Clara, and I need to pick up some boring last minutey things, but yes, done.  Done enough to mail off gifts that must be mailed, and that's exciting stuff.

And I have started the Christmas cards.  Whew.  That's always a big one for me and I like to get it started as quickly as possible.  Last year I was not on the ball and was trying to mail Christmas cards too late into December to be able to send overseas.  So far the total is 72, but I haven't done my mother's siblings and their children yet, and I still have several friends to collect addresses from.  The grand total will be close to 90 I would think.

Christmas cards are a family ministry for us.  I purchase our cards on sale after Christmas, collect addresses throughout the year, and fill them out with only our names (90 cards does not equal personal messages) and our family photo.

Our Christmas photo is taken by our lovely friend Laura.  Every year I try to get two family pictures taken, one in early summer and another to send out with Christmas cards.  You can imagine this would be ridiculously expensive if I actually paid for it, but fortunately for me I have talented friends with expensive cameras who are happy to work for cookies.  (Our most recent picture was in June, and you can take a look at it in the About Us section of the blog, if you're curious.)  I've got the children's outfits picked out for the picture, and my own.  David and Samuel have been to get their hair cut.  We've decided where the picture will be taken (spoiler: on the staircase) and decorated the bannister.

I also bought a roll of wrapping paper, and have started saving boxes.  My goal is to have our cards completely ready to go, and the three parcels we need to send sent by Friday.  Two packages to Ottawa and one to New Jersey.

Well, Advent is the season for preparation.