Happy Holidays!

Wow, where did the past couple of months go? If you're like me, it seems that we were only just celebrating Halloween last week - and yet, somehow, we've blown past Thanksgiving and Christmas is ... next week!!

<<< mildly panicking >>>

Things have been a total blur these past 6-8 weeks. I had a great time in Utah the first weekend in October ... and the got sick. Like majorly sick. Sure, it's "just" a Fall allergy thing, I kept telling myself. Well, 2+ weeks of self-medicating and I hauled my butt to the doctors office and discovered I had a really bad sinus infection. That would explain the sinus headaches, blocked ears, etc. Duh.  Well, three courses of antibiotics, two rounds of steroids, and eight weeks later and I'm still ill. Boo! The sinus infection has gone, thankfully, but I have no voice. I've never lost my voice, even with the more severe sinus problems ... but this time. Wowza. Now, before you all jump in and say, oh, I bet your hubby is thrilled that you're not talking, he just wants me to get better ... aaaawww. So now it's daily Claritin and Nasonex - and the doc. gave me enough refills on the Nasonex for 12 months ... um, is he trying to tell me something?

Despite feeling like crap, we've decorated the house, the tree is up and presents are underneath it. We even put some wreaths outside. The garland around the front door kept falling down because of rain (the clips kept losing their stickiness), but the lights do look nice. DS is bummed that he won't get a Christmas stocking this year - but at 20 y.o. I had to draw the line somewhere. He shouldn't complain - he's got plenty of other things under the tree. Trust me. Gifts have been sent to the great-nephews and nieces. Some of my overseas family won't be getting gifts until after Christmas. Um. Yeah. My bad. Actually, I don't think they'll mind too much. The dog's at the groomers today, having a spa day for the holidays. Last-minute grocery shopping will be next week and then ... hopefully ... a five-day weekend for some R&R (and scrapping). I'd love some snow, but I don't think that's a possibility - it's still nearly 50F degrees!

With work keeping me busy (year-end stuff and open enrollment ... yay ... not), my scrapping stuff is a nice retreat - okay, escape, from the real world. Just me and the computer. Hopefully the boys don't feel too neglected (LOL), but that's my down-time ... and boy, do I need it. My laptop died this week (RIP, Samsung) - like literally working one day, dead the next; fried motherboard, we suspect ... thankfully I have the big workstation to use. Post-Christmas sales shopping anyone?!

There's been some big changes in my little scrapping world recently with the new subscription offerings at Pixels & Company and new (Meredith Cardall) and returning (Shirley Polk) designers; the opening of The Digital Press (and my new Creative Team assignment with Dawn Farias | Dawn by Design); getting re-acquainted with friends at Memory Scraps (MScraps) - and winning their challenge prize from November ... pretty cool. Sad to hear that My Scrapbook Art will be closing in January :(  Change can be tough, and I hate to see places close, but ultimately, I have to remember that scrapbooking is a business for many, and for some, their sole source of income. Me? I'm lucky to call it a hobby, something that I love to do. Change keeps us on our toes, right?!

To close, here's a little bit of eye-candy ... some of my recent pages from MScraps challenges this month. I'm putting my December Daily pages on my Facebook page, so you can find them on there - I'm taking Discover December with Kelly Sill class at Scrapaneers.

Happy Holidays!