Day 33: It's all over!

It's August 31. Time's up! I am grateful to announce that Christmas in August was a huge success. Today's task was cleaning up the mess in our dining room which served as Christmas Central during this challenge. Much to the delight of my husband and myself, the dining room has been reclaimed. The boxes and bags of wrapped and unwrapped gifts have been ushered to hiding places under several beds, cupboards, and closets. I have no idea if I will be able to find everything when the time comes to pull it all out again, but I labeled all of the containers in large letters with my trusty black Sharpie. One boy's gifts are under the other boy's bed. Things for my hubby are under our bed. Gifts for various other loved ones, friends, and students are hidden in cupboards and closets. It should work!

If you've been following my blog, you know that I intentionally left many things unwrapped. That's because my mother's favorite Christmas pastime is wrapping our presents. She'll have her work cut out for her this year! 

Speaking of Mom, I'm heading down to South Carolina to stay with her for a few days while she recovers from the surgery she underwent earlier this week. It feels so good to have Christmas in August completely finished before taking this trip! I'm thankful, happy, and sort of excited!

Thank you for cheering me on during my journey! It has been lots of fun sharing each day's news with you.

From our sweltering North Pole, I wish you a MERRY CHRISTMAS! I'll be checking in later with news of how things turned out, so stay tuned!

TALLY:

Friends & Family: 18 out of 18, CHECK!

10 Neighbors: CHECK!

45 Piano Students: CHECK!

Charitable Gifts: 5 out of 6, CHECK!

70 Amazing Christmas Cards: CHECK! 

Stockings: COMPLETELY STUFFED!

Handmade Gift: FINISHED!!
Put everything away and clean up: CHECK!

Day 32: Big Announcement

It is with great pleasure and a huge sigh of relief that I make the following important announcement:

THE HANDMADE GIFT IS FINISHED!

That's right, folks. The handmade gift is FINISHED. The dining room may be a total disaster area; my manicure may have chipped completely off; I may not have gotten enough sleep or exercise for the last week; and my family may or may not recall having interacted with me during the last 48 hours; but the deed is done.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, I give you the To-do list for the remainder of Christmas In August:

CLEAN ALL OF THIS STUFF UP!

Please excuse me while I sip a pumpkin spice latte and slip into a temporary coma.

TALLY:

Friends & Family: 18 out of 18, CHECK!

10 Neighbors: CHECK!

45 Piano Students: CHECK!

Charitable Gifts: 5 out of 6, CHECK!

70 Amazing Christmas Cards: CHECK! 

Stockings: COMPLETELY STUFFED!

Handmade Gift: FINISHED!!

Day 31: Feeling Rather Confident!

My calendar runneth over!

Breaking news from the sweltering North Pole:

• The military care package has been shipped to Afghanistan! And do you know what? It doesn't even cost more to mail a package to military overseas than to someone in the continental United States. In fact, it is slightly less expensive because shipments to military personnel overseas are discounted. I never knew that!
• The handmade gift project is now, drum-roll, please: 75% complete! I realized today that there is a trick to making faster progress. It's not being a perfectionist. Duh. I'm making faster headway by following one simple rule: Do not fix tiny mistakes. Leave them! They show that a human being made this thing, and the human being is a real person.

With two days remaining to complete my challenge, things are looking good. I'm not nearly as panicked today as I was a few days ago about my ability to get the handmade gift finished. Now I can focus my attention on the only two things left for me to do:

1. Finish the handmade gift.
2. Put everything away.

To be completely honest, there is one gift that I have not yet bought, but it's something my older son has asked for, and he wants to shop for it himself. Translation: it's not on my list anymore!

As I discussed on Day 16, there is one charitable gift for a local child that I will not be able to cross off the list until September, but money has been set aside for that. It's the best I can do until I receive the child's wish list next month.

So, here is the bottom line:

TALLY:

Friends & Family: 18 out of 18, CHECK!

10 Neighbors: CHECK!

45 Piano Students: CHECK!

Charitable Gifts: 5 out of 6, CHECK!

70 Amazing Christmas Cards: CHECK! 

Stockings: COMPLETELY STUFFED!

Handmade Gift: 26 hours down, 8-10 hours to go!

Day 30: Long Day. Very Long Day.

No, Dwight, today was longer.

Here is what 8/28/12 involved for me:

• My mom had major surgery at 8:00 this morning. She is doing fine. I'm heading down to South Carolina for a few days to help with her recovery on Saturday.
• I lost a piano student (temporarily, we hope) because there was no way to schedule a weekly lesson time for her this year that works. She had limited options, and I couldn't give her what she needed. What's the big deal? It's one thing to lose a student because she doesn't want to take lessons; it's another when she wants lessons but you can't find a time to teach her. The former happens all the time. The latter is rare...and sad.
• 50 piano assignment book covers are designed and printed. Nice to have that done!
• EIGHT HOURS of progress was made on my handmade gift project. This was exhausting, but the result is that I am now 50% through!

I have three wonderful treasures in my favor: Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday! I will need to use them wisely if things are to fall into place the way I hope. When I return from caring for my mother, it will be pretty much time to start the fall semester of piano lessons. THAT is the point at which Christmas preparations will become nearly impossible. 

Here is the to-do list:

• Mail the military care package to Afghanistan
• Finish the handmade gift. I estimate that this could take 15-19 hours
• PUT. EVERYTHING. AWAY. No idea how I'm going to do this. :)

TALLY:

Friends & Family: 17.9 out of 18, CHECK!

10 Neighbors: CHECK!

45 Piano Students: CHECK!

Charitable Gifts: 4.9 out of 6, CHECK!

70 Amazing Christmas Cards: CHECK! 

Stockings: COMPLETELY STUFFED!

Handmade Gift: 19 hours down, 15-19 to go!

Day 29: One more gift...

Here is the status of things today:

• One more gift to buy
• One gift to finish making
• One gift to ship to a soldier in Afghanistan

That's it. I have four days remaining. FOUR DAYS! It will be fairly easy to buy the last gift and ship the military package, but I am panicked about the handmade gift. If I were to hazard a guess, I would say that it is about 25% complete. That's a generous estimate. Since I've put 11 hours into it so far, I probably need to count on another 33 hours to completely finish.

Oh dear!

Complication: I also have a fairly hefty amount of prep work to do before the fall semester of piano lessons begins on September 10. I should probably get out my trusty pen and paper and plot out every hour of my life for the foreseeable future. :)

If you catch me relaxing, please scream or blow a horn or something. 

TALLY:

Friends & Family: 17.9 out of 18, CHECK!

10 Neighbors: CHECK!

45 Piano Students: CHECK!

Charitable Gifts: 4.9 out of 6, CHECK!

70 Christmas Cards: CHECK! (They are beautiful!)

Stockings: COMPLETELY STUFFED!

Handmade Gift: 11 hours down, 33 to go...HELP!!

Day 28: Son #1 Budges!

My older son, who, you may recall, is the only person remaining on my list, gave me four more gift ideas today, and here is the exciting news: I was able to get one of the items - that sells for $132 new on Amazon - for $22 gently used on ebay. Of course, I first asked the boy if a gently used version of this item would be acceptable, and he said, "Absolutely!" That just leaves him more of his budgeted gift allowance to work with.

I had to work all day on piano teaching registration tasks today, but I am determined to add an hour of work on the handmade gift to my total before turning in for the night. I'm going to give myself credit for that in advance in the tally. :)

TALLY:

Friends & Family: 17.8 out of 18, CHECK!

10 Neighbors: CHECK!

45 Piano Students: CHECK!

Charitable Gifts: 4.8 out of 6, CHECK!

70 Christmas Cards: CHECK! (They are beautiful!)

Stockings: COMPLETELY STUFFED! (Sorry, Santa.)

Handmade Gift: 1 hour tonight; 11 hours spent so far

Day 27: Home for the Final Stretch!

These packages were
delivered while I was away!

Today was a long driving day, but there are a few things to report.

1. Our Christmas cards arrived, and they are BEAUTIFUL!
2. All of the items for our military care package have been delivered.
3. During a quick stop at a Cracker Barrel near Charlottesville, Va., I found more stocking stuffers.

There are five days remaining in August. If I am to complete my challenge, I will need to complete three more tasks:

1. Finish the handmade gift.
2. Shop for the final person on my list.
3. Wrap and/or store everything.

Here's to a productive final five days!

TALLY:

Friends & Family: 17.2 out of 18, CHECK!

10 Neighbors: CHECK!

45 Piano Students: CHECK!

Charitable Gifts: 4.8 out of 6, CHECK!

70 Christmas Cards: CHECK! (They are beautiful!)

Stockings: COMPLETELY STUFFED! (Sorry, Santa.)

Handmade Gift: 10 hours spent so far

Day 26: The Christmas Shop and The Cotton Gin

The Christmas Shop in Manteo, North Carolina

During my last day in the Outer Banks, I went shopping at two very Christmasy shops: The Christmas Shop in Manteo, and The Cotton Gin in Nags Head. Take a look at a few of the Christmas trees that filled the many rooms of the Christmas Shop:

I selected a few ornaments to take home and a stocking stuffer for each of my three men back home.

At The Cotton Gin, there were more Christmas trees...

...and I found that there is some kind of strange fascination with mermaids and mermen down in these parts. Perhaps you can explain these:

Last shop-stop today: Something Fishy in Nags Head. I found the most spectacular something for my husband here! I even haggled a little and got 30% off of the marked price instead of the advertised 20% off. I am really excited about this one. 

TALLY:

Friends & Family: 17.2 out of 18, CHECK!

10 Neighbors: CHECK!

45 Piano Students: CHECK!

Charitable Gifts: 4.5 out of 6, CHECK!

70 Christmas Cards: CHECK!

Stockings: BETTER TODAY!

Handmade Gift: 10 hours spent so far

Day 25: Early Christmas Presents!

I'm usually not a big fan of outlet malls, but today I scored big at the Tanger Outlet Mall in Nags Head, North Carolina. At the Talbot's outlet, I bought myself a pair of pants, 2 shirts, and a jacket, all for $44! I have a young friend with me on my short vacation here, and I bought her a few early Christmas presents as well: a maroon sweater and floral scarf from Talbots, and a pair of pants from Tommy Hilfiger. The prices were already reasonable, but we had coupons for 20% off at both stores, so the deals were sweet.

Tomorrow I hope I find a few trinkets to take home for the stockings of my manly brood.


TALLY:
Friends & Family: 17.2 out of 18, CHECK! (1 early gift today)
10 Neighbors: CHECK!
45 Piano Students: CHECK!
Charitable Gifts: 4.5 out of 6, CHECK!
70 Christmas Cards: CHECK!
Stockings: GOOD!
Handmade Gift: 10 hours spent so far

Day 24: Greetings from the Outer Banks!

Today I drove to the Outer Banks of North Carolina with a sweet friend. When we arrived, my dad and step-mother greeted us with a delicious spaghetti dinner and a glass of Moscato. We walked out to the beach and reveled in the beauty and majesty of the ocean. Dad made lifeguard poses. We walked out on the nicest pier I have ever seen and took pictures. It was a great day. How much Christmas shopping did I do? None. I do have an idea...I may make a gift out of one of the fun pictures we took today. That's all for today. From the gorgeous Outer Banks, I wish you a Merry Christmas in August!

TALLY:
Friends & Family: 17.2 out of 18, CHECK!
10 Neighbors: CHECK!
45 Piano Students: CHECK!
Charitable Gifts: 4.5 out of 6, CHECK!
70 Christmas Cards: CHECK!
Stockings: GOOD!
Handmade Gift: 10 hours spent so far

Day 23: Hittin' the Road!

Christmas in August is almost over, and so is summer! Tomorrow, I'm taking a friend with me to the Outer Banks of North Carolina for one last peek at the ocean. I will look for more stocking stuffers while I'm there!

Today was an all-day teaching day, so I wasn't able to fit in any work on my handmade gift project. I did buy one gift, though! I found something that my elusive older son mentioned. He still hasn't exhausted his allotted budget, though, so I'll have to get back on his case after my short stint at the beach. The UPS man made more than one stop by our house today. The FedEx guy came by as well! Santa's helpers.

Guess what! A friend of mine is going to do Christmas in September, and another has bought a couple of Christmas gifts this month! I'm not alone out here in fake winter-land.

TALLY:
Friends and Family: 17.2 out of 18, CHECK! (.2 improvement)
10 Neighbors: CHECK!
45 Piano Students: CHECK!
Charitable Gifts: 4.5 out of 6, CHECK!
70 Christmas Cards: ORDERED!
Stockings: GOOD!
Handmade Gift: No progress today, 10 hours spent so far.

Day 22: Almost finished shopping!!!!

This is me.
Will I cross the finish line
in victorious splendor, or will
I collapse in humiliating defeat?

All I can say is, THERE IS ONLY ONE PERSON LEFT ON MY GIFT LIST! It's that sluggish and slothful older son of mine. He has given me one little idea of what he would like for Christmas but has been spending most of his time working and preparing to move back to Virginia from Illinois. Lazy boy. He may be driving a U-Haul full of young-guy furniture and lava lamps right this moment across the fruited plain, but that doesn't give him an excuse to not give me a detailed wish list complete with shopping links when I want it. I don't ask much.

Person number 17 (out of 18) for whom I shopped today is getting an assortment of gift cards. Did you know that Kroger has an impressive selection of gift cards? Did you know that you get double fuel points when you buy gift cards at Kroger?  There was a little kick-back for us with this purchase. :)

I spent one hour on my handmade gift today, and three deliveries from UPS were left on the doorstep. Sweet.

Planning ahead for the 21st through the 31st of August, I think my focus will surely be completing the handmade gift, wrapping a few more things, assembling more piano student baggies, and FINDING HIDING PLACES WHICH I WON'T FORGET ABOUT for all of the gifts. The cupboards are full, so I'm thinking of scoping out the situation under the beds.

TALLY:
Friends & Family (17 out of 18): CHECK!
10 Neighbors: CHECK!
45 Piano Students: CHECK!
Charitable Giving: 4.5 out of 6: CHECK!
Stockings: CHECK!
70 Christmas Cards: ORDERED!
Handmade Gift: 1 hour today. 10 hours spent so far.

Day 21: Nose to the Grindstone

Today, I made up for the two days of not working at all on my handmade Christmas project and spent at least three hours...it may have been five...I lost track...working diligently. There is still lots more to do on this gift, and I'm having serious doubts about my ability to finish by August 31. Nonetheless, progress is being made, and even if I fall short on August 31, there is no law that says I can't finish it after that golden date. I'm still holding out hope that it will be finished on time!

I didn't do any Christmas shopping today for my final two recipients, but I did open up a package from Macy's that contained three presents. Let me tell you, it is worth the $6 per order (not per box) to add gift boxes to your shopping bag. In other words, my order included three items, so the $6 covered the cost of three gift boxes. They are lovely and come with tissue paper and red ribbon.

Macy's gift box

Macy's sticker on tissue paper inside

Here's what the box looks
like when it is closed and tied.
Pretty!

Let's wrap today up with a look at my pumpkin spice latte, shall we?

Mill Mountain Coffee & Tea
makes pumpkin spice lattes
year-round. Perfect!

TALLY:
Friends & Family: 16 of 18, CHECK!
10 Neighbors: CHECK!
45 Piano Students: CHECK!
Charitable Giving: 4.5 out of 6, CHECK!
Stockings: CHECK!
Handmade Gift: 3 hours on it today! (9 hours spent total)
70 Christmas Cards: ORDERED!

Day 20: Christmas Cards are DONE!

Christmas Card Preview:
The upper left-hand
corner of our card. Ha!

I suppose I should be completely honest and say that our Christmas cards are not addressed and stamped yet, but they are designed and ordered! All 70 of 'em. I decided not to make our cards by hand. I know I have a gazillion unused blank cards leftover from last year's failed attempt, but it's just so much faster to design a card by editing and uploading photos to Snapfish than to cut out little shapes and pictures to create a truly handmade card. I've already got one major crafty project going on that I "need" to finish by August 31, so it just made sense for me to abandon the handmade card idea. Besides, I'm really happy with the Snapfish card!

I'm actually starting to get pretty excited about this rather insane challenge, because (drum-roll, please) I only have TWO PEOPLE LEFT TO SHOP FOR, I MEAN, FOR WHOM TO SHOP!! This is unbelievable. I have never, ever, ever been early with my Christmas shopping in my entire life. And I'm not all that young anymore.  It really feels good to finally get ahead of the Christmas season and earn myself a ticket out of Anxiety-ville during December. I'm truly thankful for the sense of peace this is giving me.

Oh, seasonal beverages, where art y'all?

Look at this picture which is making the rounds on Facebook:

I laughed out loud at this, because it is SO me right now. I'm totally in a Christmas state of mind, and I've actually started craving pumpkin spice lattes.  A Facebook friend alleviated my angst by informing me that our locally-owned coffee shop makes pumpkin spice lattes year-round. What? No! Yes! I stopped by Mill Mountain Coffee and Tea today and tried one. Sure enough, it's really good and very similar to the Starbucks version. Later in the day, I went back and got a second one. How insane is that?!

To sum things up, I am psyched about the Christmas cards, the whittled-down gift list, and the pumpkin spice lattes. I'm disappointed that I haven't had the energy or motivation to work on my handmade gift project for two days. I really need to get in there and get at it again. And again.

TALLY:
Friends & Family: 16 out of 18, DONE!
10 Neighbors: DONE!
45 Piano Students: DONE!
Charitable Gifts: 4 1/2 out of 6: DONE!
70 Christmas Cards: DONE!!!!! (Take that, Me from last year!)
Stockings: NICE!
Handmade Gift: Umm, lagging behind. Not good.

Day 19: Three Family Members to Go!

Like!

Can I just say that I really love shopping at amazon.com? I mean, they have everything in the world. I spent maybe 30 minutes this evening shopping there and crossed one more family member off of my list and found four items for our military care package. It was so easy! And the shipping was free as well. Like!

TALLY:
Friends & Family: 15 of 18, CHECK!
10 Neighbors: CHECK!
45 Piano Students: CHECK!
Charitable Gifts: 4 out of 6 CHECK! (with progress made on the 5th)
Stockings: CHECK!
Handmade Project: No progress today. Boo.

Day 18: The Beauty of Shopping for Adult Children

Hey, I may occasionally get sad when I think about how my boys are too old for Legos, Hot Wheels garages, and Star Wars action figures, but I got over it really quickly this morning when I was able to finish shopping for my younger son in 10 minutes. The beauty of having 20-somethings in your house for Christmas is that they can do pretty much all of the leg work for poor old mom and dad. We give our boys a budget and ask them to provide us with a wish list that fits it. Our younger one gave me a meticulously specific list AND included links to the shopping sites that offered the best prices. This made Mrs. Claus's job way freakin' easy. He had a good time presenting the list as well, I'm sure!

So, here is my tip for shopping for older kids: If they do not have their precious little hearts set on being surprised, let them tell you exactly what they hope to receive, and make them responsible for fitting their wishes into your prescribed budget. My younger boy gets an A+ for doing his part this year.

Our older boy is not so easy to be done with, if I may speak frankly. He wants these hard-to-find vintage comics that take hours to find ebay. Do you think I should make him do the shopping? :)

Handmade Project Update

I worked on the handmade gift for an hour this morning and will continue with another hour this afternoon while waiting for the dryer to buzz. Multi-tasking.

Christmas Cards

I've done nothing at all in this department so far, but I do have an idea. What if instead of making all 60 or so cards by hand (which, when attempted last year, failed miserably),  I make one fabulous image, copy it 60 times, and stick the copies to the front of 60 blank cards? I still have LOTS of blank cards in my stash since I only finished a measly five of them last year. May I speak freely? I think I have a bit of a psychological issue with Christmas cards. See, my brother and sister-in-law always make an amazing card. Last year's was so over-the-top perfect that it may have been the cause of my demise. Intimidation, you know. I need to stop competing with my brother. I'm far better at most things than he is, so in the name of charity, I should just let him win the Christmas card competition every year.

TALLY:

Family & Friends: 14 out of 18 CHECK!

10 Neighbors: CHECK!

45 Piano Students: CHECK! (should assemble 6 more of these tonight)

Charitable Gifts: 4 out of 6 CHECK!

Handmade Gift: 2 hours' work on it today

Stockings: GOOD!

Christmas Cards: On the radar

Day 17: Assembly Line and Afghanistan

First things first. I promised yesterday that I would provide evidence of my having worked for an hour on my handmade Christmas project last night. I can't reveal the work in progress, but I will tell you that it is housed in this adorable pink and green bag which will ultimately serve as the wrapping for the gift when it is complete. I worked for an hour on the big deal last night as well as two hours this morning. Sounds impressive, but I am sensing that I will have to spend even more time on it each day if I am to finish by August 31.

Assembly Line

All of the elements of my piano student gifts have been delivered now, so I have started to put them together. I need to do 45 of these, and there are 12 done as of this evening. 

It's a good thing I started assembling these early, because it made me realize that I don't have nearly enough musical ribbon. I'm kinda glad I didn't make this discovery the day before our Christmas recital! No need to panic; I can buy more tomorrow. But speaking of ribbon, look at the pretty spools of it I found today:

Afghanistan

FYI, I think these are British soldiers, but I like the picture.

I learned of a terrific idea today on Facebook. A friend posted a message indicating that she had knowledge of five young men serving in the U.S. Military in Afghanistan who rarely receive care packages from home. I'm sure there are many more than five for whom this is the case, but this information was provided by the son of my friend's friend who is serving there. He feels sorry for a few of his buddies who don't receive things from family back home as he does. The Facebook post provided a list of suggested items to include in the care package:

I couldn't take a bigger screen shot than this, but the next sentence indicated that things like whoopee cushions are big hits. This really got to me. I have two boys who are of the same age as many of these young men, and I can just see them enjoying a box of silly as well as useful stuff. So THIS is my next project! I'm going to put a care package together for one of the young men and get his box out ASAP! Not waiting until Christmas for this one.

One final thought: I can see my dining room table now! Things were getting very crazy, but I found storage places for the gifts that are already wrapped, got rid of the bubble wrap and cardboard boxes that I was saving for gift shipments (changed my mind! can't stand the clutter!), dusted, and ran the vacuum. Whew! I feel better now. Apparently, the cat does, too.

TALLY

13 Friends and Family: CHECK!

10 Neighbors: CHECK!

45 Piano Students: CHECK! (12 of 45 gifts assembled)

5 Charitable Gifts: CHECK!

Stockings: GOOD!

Handmade Project: 3 hours spent since yesterday

Care Package for Soldier in Afghanistan: MY NEXT PROJECT!

Day 16: "Difficult" People

I don't know these people, but I like them.

Remember how I lamented the difficulty of choosing gifts for certain men in my family on Day 8? Well, I dealt with one of these gentlemen today, and I would like to offer a few words of support to anyone else who struggles with what to do for those sorts of people. You know, the ones who either already have everything or who never seem happy with any gifts.

• You do not have to make a person's dreams come true with your Christmas gift.
• If you have someone in your life who literally never seems thrilled with any gift whatsoever, it may simply be a case of that person enjoying the act of giving more than receiving. Or perhaps he is uncomfortable receiving gifts for some personal reason that you don't understand. Accept it and move on.
• If you feel that you absolutely must give a Christmas gift to a person who is hard to shop for, do the best you can to ascertain the sorts of things he or she likes, get the gift, and don't expect a big "wow" when it is opened. It's okay.
• Ask someone close to the recipient for tips. I did that and learned that my difficult person (you know what I mean) likes clothes. He doesn't flip out over clothes, but he does like clothes, so I found out his size and went shopping online at his favorite store...from which I had a discount coupon!
• If your difficult person is your parent, he might not like it when you spend your hard-earned money on him. Ever see that episode of Seinfeld in which Jerry tries so hard to give his dad a new wallet with money hidden inside? What did Mr. Seinfeld do when Jerry wasn't looking? He tossed the wallet in the trash without ever looking inside because it closed with Velcro, and his dad hated Velcro! Parents are parents, and it's not our job to make them decide to enjoy receiving gifts. Just don't hide money inside your present!
• Think of some little things that please your recipient. Mine gets a kick out lottery tickets and tiny bottles of booze. I'm way too uppity to ever purchase a lottery ticket or enter an ABC store, so I make my husband take care of this.  :)
• It might be nice to give a donation to the person's favorite charity for Christmas. 
• Does the person love anybody? Sure he does! How about giving him pictures of the people or pets he loves? You could put them in frames, on magnets, in books, or in a new wallet!
• Gift certificates are generally appreciated.
• Bottom line: Put a little thought into it, but don't make yourself crazy trying to please. It's wasted energy and doesn't improve your gift's impact. 
• Give a gift with love in your heart and don't worry about the recipient's reaction.

Here is what my calendar and master list look like as of this afternoon:

Report on the Handmade Gift

I do hereby promise that I will spend 60 minutes on my big handmade Christmas project as soon as I finish this blog entry. If Day 17 doesn't provide evidence of this effort, I will punish myself with no Starbucks that day. So there.

Clothes for a Child In Need

Before I write this paragraph, let me say that I don't discuss my charitable giving here in order to praise myself or to elicit commendations. I'm blogging about it to include the concept of giving outside of one's own circle of friends in the challenge I have undertaken this month. It is in that spirit that I share my plans to buy clothes for a child in need next month. I can't do it during Christmas in August, because the child's wish list will not be available until September. The best I can do now is to set aside funds and let the group I plan to work with, The Needlework Guild, know I am interested in participating in their annual new clothing drive. Members of NGA collect information about what is needed and wanted among children at our local elementary and middle schools and assign each child to a participating donor (or personal shopper as I like to think of it). Our chapter president promised me a middle school girl this year, and as the mother of boys, I can tell you that I am happy whenever I get to shop for girly things! 

TALLY:

13 Family & Friends: CHECK

10 Neighbors: CHECK

45 Piano Students: CHECK

Charitable Gifts:  4 DOWN (1 more in September)

Stockings: GOOD!

Handmade Project: Working on it now.

Day 15: Pausing to Give Thanks

I am exhausted! Not because of Christmas in August, but because of a marathon day of teaching today. Don't get me wrong...I love teaching piano (especially to the group of kids I get to work with), but 10:00 am - 5:30 pm is a long haul even for the most eager pedagogue. I confess I haven't done a single thing to advance the Christmas in August cause since yesterday. Except if you count opening the mail and finding something I ordered on Day 10.

But that's okay.

Today is the halfway point in my month-long challenge. I believe it's high time I stopped to give thanks. I am so very grateful to have loved ones for whom to shop. I'm thankful that there is money in my pocket that allows me to buy little things for people who mean the world to me. I'm grateful for a home where I can store treasures for later and a gift list that's getting checked off bit by bit. I'm so very thankful for the dream of spending this Christmas season relaxing, giving, singing, reflecting, and sharing. I thank God for sending his son Jesus and giving us a reason to celebrate on December 25 (which is probably not at all the correct date, but who cares?). I'm thankful to be halfway through this challenge!

Thank you, God, for your many blessings in my life. I am so completely humbled that you would see fit to love someone like me, and I am forever your servant. May our worldly celebrations, such as they are, bring some small measure of honor to you. Amen.

Day 14: Gift Tags (How-To) & Progress!

I don't mean to brag, but look at this! We're making progress here, and as the mid-way point in my challenge approaches, I'm feeling a combination of: this is fantastic(!), and uh-oh, things are starting to pile up. I realized today that my planned stow-away place for all of this Christmas goodness is not temperature-controlled, and it might be wise to come up with an alternative. I have a few empty cupboards and nooks around the house that will do the trick for some of it, so I'll give that a try and report back later.

Spiffy and Shiny Gift Tags (How-To)

My sister came up with this idea last year: printing gift tags on glossy photo paper. It sounds weird, but it really looks nice. She even printed pictures of her family on her tags last year. I'm not doing that...yet...but I'll show you what I am doing. It's very simple.

First, take a look at the example of what I'm going to show you how to make:

1. Open up your word-processing program and start a new text document. I use Open Office.

2. Create a text box (or "frame" in my case).

3. Edit the border to be the thickness and color you want.

4. Edit the background with a fill color if you like. I'm using a pale blue-gray.

5. Type your text using the font and color you like. The font I'm using is called KG Eyes Wide Open, and I'm using plain red for the font color.

6. Print on glossy photo paper, and voila!

Of course, you could do something much more elaborate than this, or you could use plain paper or card stock if you preferred. 

Gift List Headway

I knocked a biggie off the list today by ordering three of an item my husband likes but rarely buys for himself. I also picked up a key ingredient of the homemade thingy I'm making for ______ and got all of my supplies for the project in order. Tomorrow I really, really need to make serious progress on this item. It will not be easy, because I'm teaching summer piano lessons all day, but I'll see if I can make something happen. :)

TALLY:

12 Friends & Family: CHECK! (notice the bumped up number?)

10 Neighbors: CHECK!

45 Piano Students: CHECK!

4 Charitable Gifts: CHECK!
Homemade Item: Supplies in order. Ready to start.

Stockings: Lookin' good. (The geeky stuff was delivered, and it's nifty.)

Day 13: Handmade Gifts for Christmas

Just as I plan to do this year, I made an awesome ____________ for __________ last year, but I didn't finish it until after midnight on Christmas Eve! I can't let that happen again, so I'm trying to get on the ball now. I need specific supplies to make the awesome thingy, so yesterday, I hopped in the car with my son, stopped by Starbucks (goes without saying), and headed to the local store that carries the doohickies I need to make the certain something.

I brought a teacher's coupon along with me for 20% off of my total purchase, including sale and clearance items (YES!) and was stunned to find EXACTLY what I needed marked down drastically. Take a look:

Are you kidding me? This is nothing but a perfect storm of bargain stupendousness. While I was at the _______ store, I also found gift bags for my neighbor gifts in a 13-pack (Why not a 12-pack so you get the same number of each of the two colors? I don't know, and I'm not asking.) for $5.99.

After I presented my 20% off coupon at check-out, the bottom line on this purchase was so ridiculously low that I half-expected the police to show up. How do I feel about making a score of this magnitude? Allow me express it with the help of the geeky goodie I bought for myself on Day 7 (which arrived yesterday!):

Now that I have everything I need to make that awesome ___________ for _________, I must get going on ACTUALLY MAKING THE ITEM so that I can finish it by August 31 instead of December 24. I will definitely need to focus up for this...

TALLY:

11 Friends & Family: CHECK

10 Neighbors: CHECK

45 Piano Students: CHECK

4 Charitable Gifts: CHECK

Homemade item for ___: SUPPLIES SECURED!

Stockings: Just enough room saved for Santa