Love it / hate it, it's been and gone, phew!!!

Every year I do it, take on too much, my plans are just too big and I stress myself out. Dh hates Christmas and every year there is the moment where I melt down and just feel that I won't all come together in time. This year was no different and my poor mum came to my rescue. (thanks mum!!) I had a pretty staggering list of things to complete so I really had gotten myself into tizzy! Not helped by us deciding to update the downstairs bathroom on Christmas week and having to go around and deal with this all on my own till the day before Christmas.

Here is what I wanted to get done....

Handmade gifts for teachers - acheived
Cards sent out on time - achieved
packs of homemade baked goods for neighbours and friends - achieved
Handmade table arrangements and placecards- achieved
House squeaky clean - well nearly there....
Brunch for 20 family members on Christmas morning - done and enjoyed
Christmas dinner for 12 - done and enjoyed
Supper for 8 - done and enjoyed

We visited 12 homes on Christmas eve to deliver these packs of baked goods, half dozen mince pies, same of cookies and Brownies, jar of homemade Cranberry sauce and then some packs of Peppermint patties and coconut ice.....
I made in total 15 boxes of goodies, 15 jars of sauce and 20+ bags of sweets all tagged and wrapped (must be totally mad!!)

Here is part of the present for the teachers - DD has a lot of people to say thank you as she has an angel of a Special Needs Assistant and learning supoort teachers for her visual difficulties... So I made up a bag for each of them with notebooks (made by a very telented Anne!), the sweets and either a plant or wine for each one of them.
These are the place cards that I made for our Christsmas Dinner - the first ones are for the kids an the second ones are for the adults. Really easily made with my new Nellies multiframes that I just love.....
This is the card that I made for my mum, based on one that I saw somewhere, (searching memory for the site! - will update if I remember!!). Anyway, I completly forgot to give it to her and will not hold onto it till next year!

This is what my husband gave me for Christmas, I got it before the day, and used it over and over and I am thrilled with it.
We started entertaining at 12 on Christmas day and the last people went home at 12 that night, so the next day I indulged myself in a jammie day, stayed in PJ's all day, told the kids it was a self service day and if they ate selection boxes all day it was OK by me! So we lit the fire, sat around and they played with their new bits all day.

I have become addicted to the Wii game Rockband and am fab at Roxanne on the guitar! Wow just amazed that it is soooo much fun!

Here are some random images from around our home over the Christmas, I removed it all on New Years Eve as I just needed to get the place back to normal and our tree was so dry it was in need of the bin!!
Wow - Santa's magic footprints....

Thank you one and all to take the time to stop by my blog. I REALLY REALLY appreciate all your comments and I hope to be able to share more images and crafts with you all in 2010.