'twas the weekend before Christmas

Is it seriously the last weekend before Christmas? Seriously? Really? Because I have exactly ZERO presents underneath my tree. Wanna know how many presents I've bought Matt? Zero. Unless you count the camera, which was sorta a gift-to-each-other thing...but we're supposed to be buying other gifts for each other, too, and I've already told you how THAT'S going. Despite being not remotely ready for the gift-giving part of Christmas, I'm not stressed about it in the least. It'll get done...or it won't, and that'll be fine too. It'll be a good time to remind people that "Christmas isn't about the presents!"Haha, wouldn't that be a jerk move? Okay, also you should know that we've already DONE Christmas with my family...so it's not like I haven't done ANYTHING. All of those presents were wrapped...and are now given away. But our tree does look really sad, all present-less.

So what have I been doing this last weekend before Christmas, now that I've admitted how unprepared I am for Christmas? Well...obviously, procrastinating some more! Last night I hosted my first ever Girls Being Crafty night! Basically it was an excuse for some ladies to hang out and/or eat and/or work on some crafts. Not terribly organized (I most certainly did not plan some organized group craft for everyone to work on together...it was BYOC)...because that would probably stress me out. I just wanted people to come over to my house (it's no small drive) and be happy. 

Side note: last December, I decorated my house as per usual. And at the end of the month, when the house had been decorated for the whole month, I realized that not a SINGLE PERSON besides Matt and myself had been inside our house to see the decorations. NO ONE. Maybe the UPS guy had glimpsed the inside when he dropped something off, who knows. But not a single friend or family member ever came over. And it's not anyone's fault but my own. But don't you know I cried for like 3 days over that travesty? So this year, I was determined: SOMEONE BESIDES US WILL SEE AND ENJOY MY DECORATIONS!! That gave me extra encouragement to try and put together some sort of social get-together to ensure it would happen. 

So anyway, some girls came over and there was food and craftiness and good conversation and so I considered it a success. But the night was not without drama! And I'm not talking about the girl kind. I'm talking-- my corkscrew BROKE!!!!!! As in, we had no way to open up the wine!!!! You should have seen the faces of horror as we realized our predicament. Luckily, our friend Google had many suggestions on how to get out of this pickle. Please witness the winning idea: using a screw and hammer, and a lot of brute strength.

 Yes, I realize my nails look awful. I am currently accepting sponsors for a manicure.

VICTORY IS MINE!!!, saith Erika.

And that is the extent of my pictures from Craft Night. Apparently my craft was not working on my photography. I am not even done with my craft yet. If it doesn't suck, I might show you later when I'm done.

Today, after sleeping until like...lunch...we did some necessary chores and then got fancied up for a wedding. Yes, we have had weddings two weekends in a row. Because our Christmas budget was like, SO OVERFLOWING WITH FUNDS, we were like...anyone? Is there anyone else who we could buy gifts for?? Please?? OK not really, it was just a coincidence. This was a 3pm wedding, and even thought we had loads of crap we SHOULD have been doing before that...instead, we decided to have a photo shoot with ourselves, courtesy of our tripod and self-timer that shoots continuous pictures!! Woohoo!

 Um...who was in charge of that above picture, anyway? Could they have PICKED a brighter, squintier spot? I think not. Sheesh.

So...verdict on having a home photo shoot with self-timer and tripod? SUPER FUN. WILL DO MORE OFTEN. 

So then we wedding-ed (after a very stressful experience at Bed, Bath, and Beyond, which I do not care to re-live again) and then finally bit the bullet and did some Christmas shopping. Whilst wearing our wedding clothes (see above). One store we went to was Home Depot. I'm guessing they don't see people as fancy as us very often there. We got some stares.

So GUESS WHAT? In the time it's taken me to write this blog, A PRESENT HAS APPEARED UNDER MY TREE! I guess Santa Matt has been busy. But for some reason, one lonely present looks even more depressing than no presents, haha. 

Oh yeah!! You should go visit my friend Kristina's blog: she did a cute tutorial about making DIY silhouette ornaments, and guess who she used as her model? LOLA! I know, my sweet little baby is moonlighting as a model. And also it is one of her PUPPY PICTURES...which are about as adorable as you would imagine. So you should go check it out and die of the cuteness.