Christmas Craptacular

Remember when Christmas was fun?  Every year I would get ready for Santa with my Christmas list clenched in my fist.  Mommy, mommy can we send the list.  My mom would always send that list off to Santa for me.  Right there is where my Christmas workload ended.  The only other thing I had to do all season long was to eat Christmas cookies and wait for Santa to arrive.  As I got older and holiday responsibilities increased, Christmas became less magical and more and more a hassle, almost to the point of hatred.   Long lines in that dreaded place called the mall left me with a bad taste in my mouth, and all the Christmas cookies I ate couldn’t wash the taste out of my mouth.   Last year Christmas around my house was hard.  With my mother’s failing health and my hours cut at work I needed a way to get gifts for my nieces and nephews, as well as something to focus my mind on to help relieve the depression from dealing with my mom’s situation.  So, I turned to the shop to help me with both.  I made a couple of projects mainly for my nieces and nephew.  One of my favorite toys as a kid was this block of wood that was turned into a tic tac toe game it had to holes drilled into the side to keep the marbles in.  I made a bunch of those and the kids loved them.  Unfortunately, this Christmas season is no better then last, with the passing of my mother this past summer.  I know this year is going to be hard. So this year once again I turn to my shop for comfort, making hand made gifts for family and friends.  Making gifts instead of buying them seems to have done a couple of things, one it keeps me out of the mall, which is always a good thing, second it has seemed to have restored my faith in Christmas.  And that is the best gift of all.