Tis the Season

Tis the season for holiday cards.

Molly was my subject for many of my cards over the years and I honestly haven't made a card or sent out any since then. I mean for myself. I know everyone just can't wait for a picture of me for the holidays. At my age, you can see how much I'm shrinking over the years! That's what I should do, I should get one of those "how big are you cards" and mark myself off over the years. And I don't have to go far to get one, I've received lots of cards over the years for my birthday with the measuring tape in them. Ha ha ha. Yes I'm small, but you all must know that good things come in small packages. I'm just full of goodness.

So how tall will I be in my 90s? Mmmm. I'm 5 foot nothing now, although I haven't checked that in a while. But I'm guessing I'm gonna lose an inch or two? Whada ya think?

From the oldest of my nieces and nephews to the youngest, I have been the comparison mark to how tall they are getting. I'm taller than Aunt Tricia. Aunt Tricia, I think I'm taller than you now. Aunt Tricia, were you always that short? Irene, the oldest of my nieces and nephews who will be, I cannot believe this, 30 this month, always said I'm going to be taller than you Aunt Tricia, I'm going to be tall like Aunt Debbie. My sister Debbie is not tall, just next to me, she's tall. And Irene, well she is pretty much exactly the same size as me. Again good things come in small packages.

Growing up my sister Linda was a big John Denver fan. We all loved his music as well and continue to do so. My brother Bob took her to see him in concert I think two times when she was in her young teens, and he was pleasantly surprised at how much he enjoyed the shows. Can't beat John Denver in my book, he's one of the greats!

One year for Christmas I bought Linda a John Denver t-shirt. Just a small gift, not much money, but boy did I look forward to giving her that present more than anything I have ever given her.

I knew she would love it but I didn't want her to know what it was by just looking at the wrapped box. I wanted to torture her. And I did! I rolled up the t-shirt into the tiniest box it would fit into, wrapped it, and until Christmas morning I would give the box to Linda and have her try and guess what it was. I always had the biggest smile on my face while she was making her guess. She knew it was something she was going to love and was excited but just couldn't figure it out.

She did love the t-shirt, it was yellow and I can still picture her face that Christmas morning when she opened that little box. I can still see her in that yellow t-shirt as it became her favorite and she wore it until it fell apart. And me, well I felt like the greatest sister that Christmas.

I think those are always the best gifts. Big or small. When you buy a gift that you just know is going to make someone you love over the top happy, you feel as good as they will when they open it. How good is that!

So I don't make holiday cards for myself anymore but I do make a holiday card each year for my brother Joey and his kids. Below is a card I designed from a couple of years ago and the kids are smiling in this picture, but we went through many frowns and arguments before we got the smiles. In the end Joey had to scream to get them to calm down and smile. Very stern. SMILE! They laughed! The mood was lightened and we got a great shot.



I took the picture from my MAC. There's a program called Photo Booth which takes pictures and video and gives you lots of different effects to pick from. I used the mirror image effect and then in a print shop program I added the background and tree and then it's hard to see but the tree is inside the tree, inside another tree.

Tis the season, gotta call Joey and get my act together for his holiday card!!!