Countdown to Christmas

In order for this Christmas Elf to complete all the handmade gifts I want to give for Christmas, I need to get an early start AND I need to be organized. A few years ago, my girlfriend and I found a website called Organized Christmas and have participated in Cynthia Townley Ewer's brainchild of an idea, Christmas Countdown for the past three years.


The Christmas Countdown is a free six-week Christmas organizing plan that breaks Christmas preparations down into small, easy-to-take steps and posts the daily task on the organizedchristmas.com website. Each of the six weeks is organized by theme. If you follow each task list and do a little bit each day, then theoretically, you can be completely prepared for Christmas by the first weekend in December.

The Countdown starts tomorrow (Sunday, October 26) which means that tomorrow evening, my girlfriend and I will dress up in our Christmas sweaters, break open a bottle of wine and start making our lists and dreams for Christmas 2008. This will be our fourth Christmas participating in the countdown, and though I cannot say I've been completely ready by the first weekend, I have certainly been more organized and better prepared than the years before I participated. This plan gives me more time to spend making gifts which I love to do...Even if you don't celebrate Christmas, I believe the plan would apply for any major life event or celebration.


Thinking of handmade gifts, I must say that I was pleasantly surprised with the abundance of ideas in Quilting Arts Holiday Gifts magazine. There are luggage tags, wine bottle holders, picture frames, book covers, CD covers, quilted gift card holders (loved this idea!) and these embellished aluminum tins that just beg to have wonderful surprises tucked inside.


Last but not least, because of both Lynn and Denise, I have been asked to share 7 unknown/obscure facts about myself. Here goes...

1. I keep a list to myself of sub-cultures I would love to infiltrate for a brief period of time. The list includes motorcycle riders, square dancers, Casts of famous Broadway shows, New York Stock Exchange traders, oceanographers, skydivers, bee keepers, cattle ranchers, museum curators, competitive sports fishermen, to name just a few...I'm hoping for the day when I can make friends with someone who will take me "inside" those cultures so I can learn more about them...

2. I spent the Summer after I graduated college touring Europe with a group visiting 23 different countries. I never received my luggage and spent the $500 I had saved as spending money on underwear, a bathing suit, toiletries, and a pair of shoes at a Paris flea market. I wore the same two outfits all Summer long. I was so excited by all that I was experiencing that it really didn't bother me not to have any clothes, makeup, jewelry, etc.

3. I get very excited when Starbucks introduces the "Red Cup" in November and I save my pennies so I can buy an eggnog latte while doing holiday errands. The idea of the red cup puts me in a good mood.

4. I routinely buy Martha Stewart Weddings magazine strictly for the eye candy and photographs. I have no plans of attending and/or planning a wedding for another ten years or so but I can't resist the flowers, the favors, the palettes or the dresses within that magazine...

5. When I was 24, I went to a comedy club to see a hypnotist. He selected me along with ten others to be hypnotized. I went under completely and was such a good subject that I became the main part of his act. He asked me to tell my favorite singer. I said I was too embarrassed. He said I could whisper it into his ear (of course, he was holding the microphone up to my lips...). I whispered Madonna. He then told me to perform my favorite Madonna song and I proceeded to sing and dance Madonna's hit "Like A Virgin" including breast caressing and crotch grabbing...something I would NEVER have done had I not been hypnotized!! I was such a hit that they gave me free passes for a whole month! I have never gotten hypnotized again and I think it's very strange that I remember everything...

6. I was cut from the Varsity basketball team in High School which devastated me. I played for another rec team and we scrimmaged the team I was cut from. We beat them, I was the high scorer of the game, and it was written up in our local town newspaper! I have never forgotten how great that felt!

7. The first thing I do when visiting any new city, large or small, is get the yellow pages between the beds in the hotel room and look for needlework stores in the area. I make a list and then do my best to visit all of them before I leave town.

I just finished reading Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres so you should be reading a review soon. Suffice it to say that I am completely smitten by Captain Corelli and his mandolin...