Holly Jolly Christmas

I get very, very sick once a year, and unfortunately, my bout this year was the week before Christmas.  My worst day was the one day I intended to get all my Christmas card making done - Bah humbug!  I was nearly passing out, but I gritted my teeth and plowed through it - and happily, the cards turned out quite well!

I LOVED this design so much, I made a batch in all different colors:

I heat embossed the trees (remember my tutorial on embossing?) so that at one point, the cards looked like a hot mess:

But the joy of embossing is that after it's done, the embossed image is fantastically raised and shiny:

The partridge is punched out with a paper punch that I had used for a wedding card in the past; I just discarded the branch part.  I stacked two layers of foam backing on the little bird to make it really stand out:

How closely do you think the cards ended up turning out compared to my original sketch?  

I had a lot of fun leading up to Christmas, despite the holiday parties I missed the week before due to my deciding that coughing on all the guests and getting them sick would not be acting in a proper holiday spirit.

And finally, it's Christmas Day today!  I jumped happily out of bed early in anticipation of the day and am blogging in my Christmas tree pajamas with a mug of lavender milk tea.  Right after I post this, I'll be hustling to get things ready.  It will be a fun day spent cooking and walking and watching movies and laughing about everything and nothing at all with a friend.  We'll be cooking up a storm based on the menu that I planned out a month ago.

Heck, here's the whole timeline that I did up for the day, haha (I never said I wasn't nutso!):

CHRISTMAS BRUNCH:

• Christmas oyster soup! - I've made this every Christmas for the past few years.  I love having my very own holiday tradition.
• Creamy mushroom and spicy Italian sausage pasta casserole
• Raspberry scones with homemade apple-pumpkin compote - Made with my Black Friday slow cooker, yay!
• French press coffee

TAKE A WALK, BE HAPPY, BE GRATEFUL!

BACK TO WARM APARTMENT WITH ROSY CHEEKS:

• Array of artisanal cheeses - With lovely accompaniments: lavender honey, The Best Fig Jam in the Entire World, walnuts and toast points.
• Spiked homemade egg nog

HOME-COOKED ROAST DUCK DINNER!

AFTER DINNER, WITH GOOD MOVIES (on my awesome new 55" LED tv):

• Roasted chestnuts
• Popcorn
• Marie Belle Aztec spices gourmet hot chocolate

Whew!  That's way more than enough calories for anyone, even factoring in the fact that it's a holiday (and holiday calories - like road trip calories - don't count).

Merry, merry Christmas!  Hope you spend the day with loved ones!