Where did the time go?

I'm sitting here waiting for some delicious pizza to arrive, watching our recording of "Bringing Up Baby" and reflecting on how my usual holiday organization utterly escaped me this year.

Just to be completely clear we are midway between Christmas and New Year. I finally decided I was finished decorating our tree yesterday, with way fewer ornaments than usually (although I really like it this year - almost all the decorations were hand made by me) and that is just about all I've managed to put up.

Usually I make cards, make gifts, make gingerbread and set a beautiful table. Not this year. I have dispatched no cards, sent no hampers, and the gifts this year were mostly purchased. Plus the one thing I thought I had ordered on a website to get sent off apparently didn't go through. Annoying.

However, I did get a Secret Santa gift sent off in time, I hope, and my immediate family received nice presents. We made our traditional crock pot stew, and have been slurping up bowls of it ever since.

We received the average number cards - 17 by snail mail, and a couple of nice email greetings. I enjoy seeing photos of friends' kids as they grow up over years, although one of James' ham radio buddies sent a photo just of himself on his card, which seemed a little unusual.

Most years past I have sent out 73 handmade cards, including internationally. It occurs to me that my list is too long! Plus so few people reciprocate the next year. I can picture some folks looking at them and saying, "Here's another card from those Coburns again. Who are they?"

Maybe that's why it felt so overwhelming to attempt this year. For those people who like getting my cards, I'm sorry, and I plan to return to sending them next year - at least to those who sent them to us this year. And in the meanwhile, I have thank you cards to make and send.

Besides we've been very busy. I'm preparing a comprehensive business plan for a meeting that we have scheduled part way through January. I'm preparing a proposal for a major installation for the same meeting. I'm designing several projects for my ScraPerfect Design Team, that will be part of a promotion at CHA at the end of January with a bunch of craft vendor partners. More details of those will be on my Iggy Jingles blog.

James is busy working hard, not just at LAFS, but also on his coursework for his degree. He should be finished by February.

I hope everyone's holidays are wonderful.