Maker Christmas Countdown

Welcome back everyone! Here is where we stand right now:

It's 12:22 AM on December 19th, 2018, with six days to go until Christmas and I've made nary a dent in my to do pile.  I've also started using words like 'nary'.  Whether I want to admit it or not, I've already started mentally scrolling through the list of to do’s to find the projects that might be negotiable while trying to calculate how many hours I actually have to sleep over the next week or so.  Unfortunately for me, it’s more than I’d like.

If you guys read the blog post from last week you know that I started an advent calendar for Ashley and my friend, Ana, which is a short story that I send a part of every day during the month.  This project has become my primary point of concern but while I love the story I grossly underestimated the amount of time it would take me to write.  Why I thought this would be a good December project, I have no idea.  I needed to do this in a month where absolutely nothing else is going on even though I’m not entirely sure what month that is.  The other day I briefly toyed with the idea of moving Christmas up ten days and finishing the story with a quick “and they all lived happily ever after” but Ana quickly put her heel right in that. Both Ashley and Ana say they love the story and really think I’m onto something publish worthy but I’m still over here thinking, “nah, you’re just saying that because you love me.”  Imposter syndrome is a real thing guys. I wouldn’t believe that anyone reads this blog if you all didn’t come up and tell me at shows that you do.  Even then, I’m a little sceptical.

Regardless of the chaos, December is my favourite maker time.  I think it has to do with the fact that as a season we’re all making things as a collective. A lot of people will remark at the consumerism and, yeah, I will agree we definitely need to do better about spending excessively and unnecessarily, accumulating things we don’t need and encouraging other people to do the same thing.  I definitely know that I spend a lot of time around now thinking about presents and hoping that the gifts that I’ve chosen are an adequate representation of my love and affection.  It’s usually followed by a last-minute shopping spree while thinking, “I really love you more than this, please believe meeee!!!”

That being said I think we do a lot of great things during the holidays. We decorate our homes as expressions of ourselves, make meals and bake, and we make time for each more. I find that we share ourselves so much more at Christmas then at any other time of the year and the rewards for doing that are immeasurable.  This is when we make up for all of the other parts of the year where we were excited about canceled plans and checked our cellphones during dinner.

Regardless of how many things there are to do, I can’t wait until Christmas day.  I want to watch Christmas movies with my nieces, drink mimosas with the in laws and eat pepperpot with fresh bread with John and Ash before napping it all off on the living room floor. I want twinkle lights and pretty wrapping paper and I want everyone to open their presents because Christmas presents are generally the only secrets I keep and I’m a horrible secret keeper.  This is torture!

Whatever your plans are, whether you celebrate a holiday in December or not, I wish you and yours the very best of the season.  I hope you experience joy and wonder and togetherness and, more than everything else, I wish you peace.

I will be back next week because even boxing day sales can’t keep me away from you guys!  When I come back I’ll give you a tally of what actually got done verses what I wanted to do! Merry Christmas everyone! Ash and I love you all!