Shock and Awe and the overwhelmed Mama

Phew! Finally I am able to sit down and relax for a few minutes! The after-Christmas flurry is still not completely over here at the Newman house but it IS winding down. We have not taken the tree and lights down yet just because we don't have the energy! We usually wait until after the New Year anyway. The last few days I have just been sorting through old toys, organizing new toys, putting away presents, and ALL the fun that comes with two days worth of gift giving. I don't know where I am going to put all this stuff! Some of it is not necessarily EASY to find spots for! (For example-a huge blue BEANBAG!) We were gone all weekend with only a short interlude at home on Christmas morning. Since it was such a short time, we had just enough time to unload the car from Christmas eve, open our family presents in the morning and leave again (we didn't even pick up the ripped paper!)-returning with an overflowing car. So-you can imagine the mess. I was OVERWHELMED on Monday morning-and it has taken me until today to get this house back in some semblance of normalcy. I have swept the floors, FINALLY gotten caught up on laundry (THAT was a feat-let me tell you!), and have put away most of the Santa's workshop (by that I mean all the craft supplies that were out in our flurry to get last minute handmade presents done!

I went shopping today to get a few groceries, some film developed, and some after-Christmas clearance fabric. JoAnn Fabrics had all Christmas fabric 75-80% off. Apparently, I waited too long because there was only a few different fabrics available and only ONE of those I liked. It is "Brett-esque" because it is swedish-looking like Jan Brett illustrates in her book. I am not obsessed-really, it was just coincidence! I bought enough of it to make coordinating Christmas outfits for Corynn and Peanut for next year. I am VERY excited!

Matt has had off all this week and we are getting very used to having him around! When Tuesday rolls around, we won't know what to do without him! Tuesday I had a doctor's apt. for peanut and all is well. Afterward, we went out to eat (for the first time in AGES! Thanks so much to Matt's aunt who gave us cash just for that purpose!) and then went to the library. I was glad Matt was there just because I couldn't carry all the books out to the car myself!

Yesterday Matt spent the entire day working with his leather (his brother got him a speed-stitch awl for Christmas). He is going to post a picture of the finished project (he made two of the same thing...) on his blog in a few days. (I write this so that he WILL! hehehe)

Today I am going to post pictures of some of the gifts I made for people this year with the exception of the waterproof apron I made for Matt. He wanted one for when he is wringing out his deer hides. His brother took that with him to use since he is working with some hides today. I will get a picture of that later. All the handmade gifts pictured were first-time experiences (I had never made anything like them before), all were made without patterns, and all were made in one night! ;-)

Expect to see more holiday photos in the coming days-I have a plethora of them to share...that's for sure!