Christmas cookies and an early Christmas for myself...

It's two days 'til Christmas. Whatever. It's a forced social holiday where you are supposed to be with people you love (whom you spend the rest of the year fighting with) and eat way too much food and spend money on gifts for the above-mentioned people in order to placate them until you can leave. That's one way to look at Christmas.

I like to listen to the music of the season. Forget all the hustle and bustle, the push to find the best present for your cousin's aunt's sister's dog, the massive amount of greed and avarice present in the holidays--forget all of it. All I like about Christmas is the songs, the classic cartoons, and well, that's pretty much it. I do like spending the holidays with people I care about and who care about me. While I do care about my family, we tend to fight too much...so when I think about my favorite Christmas, I think about my first Christmas in Korea. That's my favorite Christmas...spent with new friends who have become best friends, filled with happiness and no arguing, good food, watching Elf, and just enjoying each others' company...that Christmas is my ideal for the holidays now.

So an early Christmas for myself...there's really no one better at getting gifts for me than myself. :-) I always know exactly what I'll like and I have yet to disappoint myself. haha. So I bought a tripod for myself this year and a new camera lens. I feel ready to take on photography with a vengance...too bad the weather is still horrible. They're predicting this winter to be one of the worst in a long time for the Midwest. Yuck. While I bought the tripod, I was a little saddened that it didn't come with a carrying case. Having a case is important to protect the tripod, so I decided to make one for it. I spent a day sewing a plastic case by hand with fishing wire (ridiculous) and then made a fabric cover for it and assembled my tripod case. It's very me-ish with flowers and braided strap. There's no doubt that it belongs to me. haha. I'm glad that I've managed to give myself a great Christmas this year. However, I am headed to my sister's house in Georgia tomorrow morning for a few days with the whole fam for Christmas...