Christmas is over!  All that fuss, and it is over in less than 24 hours.  The eating marathon, as my step-son said on Christmas Eve, was awesome!  We always have a traditional Italian Christmas Eve and Christmas day dinner. (My mother was born in Italy.) Christmas Eve dinner consists of an antipasto platter and deep-fried smelts.  Next comes a traditional soup made of roasted chestnuts and garbonzo beans.  When I was a kid, I called it “dirty dishwater” soup because of its dark brown color.  Delicious!  Then pasta with calamari sauce and salad.  In my household, salad is always the last course.  I know, it confuses people.  On Christmas day, we have the antipasto platter again, wedding soup, pasta again, some sort of meat roast (pork, beef, or ham), and salad.  After dinner a fruit bowl and nuts are offered for dessert plus torrone (almond nougat candy made in Italy) and whatever other sweet might be available.  And wine…plenty of home-made wine at both meals.  No Italian dinner is ever complete without the vino!  All that fuss and cooking, and it is over. But it was awesome!

The day after Christmas is always such a let down.  If it were up to me, every day would be Christmas.  I can’t believe that I have to start thinking about taking down my decorations.  I just finally got them all up.  This time of year is my favorite, but it is way too short.  The anticipation of the holiday lasts for weeks, and then it seems as if it is over in a matter of minutes.

We had all of our children here for Christmas, but only one of the grandchildren.  One was with her mom this  year.  But that is okay, we will make up for it next year, and besides…who said you can only open presents on December 25?  The Spirit of Christmas should last all year, so we can surely make it last a few more days until our other grandchild is with us.

I got a little shopping in yesterday.  It was heartbreaking to see some of the sweaters I bought as gifts on sale for 40% off.  But for the most part, I found one or two good bargains.  I mainly had to return a shirt I purchased for my husband that he said was too small, but I thought it was a perfect fit.  So I exchanged it, and found a gift or two for myself with my gift money.

And in the midst of the last-minute preparations for the holiday, I got two cards stamped on Christmas Eve day.  One is a simple thank you card I made for a few of my students who gave me gifts, and another is a Mother’s Day card for lack of not knowing what else I could stamp.  That’s another sad part about Christmas being over…now what do I stamp?!  I love making Christmas cards, and I still have to send a few.  Or maybe I will save them for next year, and send cards saying “Thinking of you.”

Here are the cards.

Here’s what I used on this card.

Another Thank You photopolymer stamp set  133454

Endless Wisher photopolymer stamp set  133455

Whisper White Card Stock  100730

Island Indigo Card Stock  122923

Island Indigo Classic Ink  126986

Coastal Cabana Classic Ink  131175

Rhinestones Basic Jewels  119246

On this card I used…

Island Indigo Card Stock  122923

Very Vanilla Card Stock  101650

Venetian Romance Designer Series Paper  130144

Tangerine Tango Classic Ink  126946

Island Indigo Classic Ink 126986

Everything Eleanor Stamp Set  131987-w/124164-c

Chalk Talk Framelits Dies  129983

Fancy Fan Embossing Folder  177751

Pearl Basic Jewels  119247

Island Indigo Ribbon (no longer available)

So there you have what I accomplished on the day before Christmas in addition to all of that cooking.  It has been a while since my last post, but this time you got two for the price of one.  🙂  Until next time…

Happy Stamping!

Josie