Didn't I do well!

So how was is for you?  Here it was manic, lovely but manic.  We had ALL our family staying here!  So normally there are 4 of us in this house yet on Christmas Night there were 9 of us and 1 in hotel (he's the cleverest of all of us!) so it got very busy.  Because of the snow and bad weather they all turned up 1 or 2 days earlier than originally planned so that's a lot of cups of tea, lots of meals, and lots of people! Add to that my DH  has not been feeling well due to a cold which I now seem to have caught and you see how busy its been.  Now we are down to 2 extra people staying here so that's much easier!  Today being Boxing Day there has been football all day so I had a lovely hour and half on my own catching up with Eastenders (Gotta be done!) which was the longest time I've had on my own in over a week!  We had the same amount of family staying last Christmas and right now I'm think that next Christmas I NEED a quiet Christmas with just us to worry about rather than EVERYONE else.  We lost my mother 5 years ago and her absence is felt strongly at these significant times of the year and I had a little moment last night when I came to bed and realised how I'd been running around like a fool trying to make everyone elses Christmas perfect and since my mother died there was no-one trying to make my Christmas perfect IYKWIM.  You know how us mothers are sometimes we need some mothering ourselves and without a mother to do it sometime we forget.  Anyway.......

For my Xmas pressies I had made a list of craft books I wanted and look what I found under the tree ......

.... plus some that got stuck in Scotland due to the snow that should get forwarded on to me in a few weeks!  Can't believe I've got so many craft books now!  Its nearly all the books on my list (my brother is particularly generous!) not sure where I'm going to put them all!  What about you, did you get some lovely crafty books.  I'm thinking that I might make some of the Christmassy things now rather than leave it til next December and rush it.  I already know I'm going to make a Tree Skirt so maybe I can get some Christmas Fabric in some sales and get a bargain! I'm also going to make the Gingerbread House that I've been threatening to make since last Christmas, I actually have the thick felt I need but I ran out of time.   I think we need lots and lots of red Nordic felt decorations so that shall be on my list and most of the Tilda books!    I shall be updating my list of what I've achieved and what I want to do in the next few days as amazingly its my blogiversary!  Time to take stock and assess what I want to do!