Christmas 2011

This Christmas was spent with Tim's side of the family as my family was all up in Canada. Typically, since our parents live in the same city, we'll split the day in half between the two so it was kind of nice to be in one place all day. We aren't one for taking many pictures (funny, you'd think with my love of photography I'd take tons, but I tend to forget or be too lazy!) but the few I captured were of Jack in all his present-opening excitement. We also caught a video of him playing with his favorite gift of all: a drum pad thingy that Tim had picked up months ago (much to my chagrin). I swore Jack would play with it once or twice and then get bored and I kept trying to get Tim to return it. Good thing we didn't because Jack plays with it every chance he gets! Here's a video of him trying it out Christmas morning:

This year, I was inspired to create a couple "custom" gifts. This doesn't happen often, because hand made gifts make me nervous: if the person doesn't love it, I'm more likely to take it to heart. So it was a risk. My sister-in-law has a love for the Disney princesses. So, after finding out her "top 5" I created the following illustration and framed it for her.

My brother-in-law's girlfriend was unexpectedly in town and so I wanted to give her a little something too. This is a sketch of her dog and my brother-in-law's dog; I think I did better with the likeness of her pug (on the left) than I did with his puggle (on the right). She was thrilled with it though and that's all that matters.

Next year I want to try even harder to keep gifts more personal or home made. I also want to be better at sending out Christmas cards - which I failed miserably at! Perhaps I'll add it to my list of goals for the new year :)