randomness from this week

Whee! Christmas is less than a week away!!! Usually I get an idea for our annual family Christmas card in late November and though I spend way too much time on it, I usually enjoy designing our card immensely. This year I had sort of an idea going so I went ahead and ordered some card stock and envelopes. Then that idea sort of never really got where I wanted it and I wanted to change colors up but I already had all this card stock and tons of envelopes and I was really forcing the whole thing and it wasn’t what I’d hoped for and no one could tell we were supposed to be standing in front of a chalkboard with our Christmas wishes draw behind us like we were thinking them and bleh!  I just threw my hands up in the air, printed and sent them anyway.  Then I started tweaking it for the electronic version to send out to the folks that we just keep in internet-touch with and finally it all came together and I got it to make sense and *sigh* oh well. Here's the e-version of the card so you can see what I would have liked to have sent out in the first place.

While that was a bit of a disappointment this year, I’ve been pleasantly surprised with our downtown shopping. We have a cute old fashiony couple of blocks of chic boutique shops and locally owned, one of a kind, all American shops, like books stores, pet shops, hobby shops, art supply shops, etc and some enjoyable restaurants. I LOVE that there isn’t a single chain store among them!!!! I had the boys with me, so I didn’t get any gifts yet, but I’m planning my child-free escape soon.

Particularly, I need to be sans this little child in those stores!  He is such a little monkey.  He jabbers almost nonstop, only we still really understand just a few words that AJ says to us. So it cracked me up when I stepped in to check on him as I was going to bed the other night and he was jabbering/mumbling in his sleep. Nope, still couldn't understand him.

And speaking of jabbering, we heard a ruckus in the front yard the other day and looked out to find no fewer than 3 dozen of these bad boys strutting their stuff right outside our window!

It was quite a sight. They ambled around to the backyard where 3 of them wandered through the open garden gate and then weren't quite sure how to get out. M was disappointed that I didn't run down and close the gate on them so we could have fresh wild turkey for our Christmas dinner. He said he was joking, but he said it in that tone of voice that means, "I'm joking, but if you thought I was serious and that it was a good idea, then I'm, in truth, not really joking." You will know I have fully assimilated to South Dakota when I think it's a good idea to slaughter and process our own Christmas dinner. :)  For now you are safe with me Mr. Turkey Lurkey, Merry Christmas.