7 Quick Takes about Vector Graphics, Hats for the Hungry, and Contributing to the Mall Santa's Headache

It's 7 Quick Takes Friday!

—1—

While I've been known, on occasion, to learn new things, they usually aren't related to technology. I'm a complete technophobe who asks Phillip to do it every time I need to compress a file or edit an image or design something on the computer. (He's enabling me, I blame him.)

But no more! I taught myself how to use Inkscape, a vector graphics program. I used it to design these nifty little pieces of home decor for some friends at church:

Frames from Dollar Tree. I'll never shop anywhere else for frames again. They had me at $1.

Also, I now casually insert the phrase "vector graphics program" into as many conversations as I can because it makes me sound smart.

—2—

My kids helped me stamp, address, and stuff our Christmas card envelopes this year. This is noteworthy because I'm a huge perfectionist. Perfectionists don't ask their children for help with tasks like this. Kids don't care what the finished product looks like, and this gives the perfectionist nervous tics.

I was pretty proud of myself for not freaking out when they stamped our return address on unevenly or put the cards in the envelopes upside-down, but I reached my breaking point when one child decided to start putting the stamps on crooked.

If anyone knows of any rehab programs that would apply to my situation, please let me know because I need to sign up for all of them.

—3—

We visited a living Nativity, and I had no idea how hard it would be to explain the concept beforehand to my 3-year-old. 

When I said there were going to be people dressed up, she thought it was like Halloween and asked if they'd try to scare us. Then she thought we were going to actually see Jesus being born. Finally I just gave up and told her to get in the car.

I'm still not sure if she understood at all why we were walking around in the cold with dressed-up people talking to us.

—4—

Maybe explaining things isn't my strong suit. It was Hat Day at my son's school, but the "cost" of wearing your hat was one canned good (to be donated to the food pantry.) Here was my attempt to explain this to my son:

"Today's Hat Day. If you bring food in a can, you can wear your hat to school."

"Huh?"

"They'll give the can to the food pantry."

"What's a food pantry?"

"It's a place where people who can't afford food can go to get free food."

"What does 'afford' mean?"

"It means they don't have money to buy it."

[long silence]

"So... they're giving hats to people who can't buy food?"

In the end, he decided not to participate in Hat Day. Probably because he was afraid hungry people were going to steal his hat.

—5—

Just in time for Christmas, here's a little video to let parents of big families know they're not alone during the holidays:

Maybe I'll just break into song like this the next time I need to respond to a comment in the grocery store about how many kids I have.

—6—

We got it. The picture I look forward to taking every year with babies or toddlers in the house: the obligatory wailing-on-Santa's-lap picture. Good times.

Every Christmas, I like to pull out my favorite Santa picture, taken when my first was about 18 months old. Screaming so hard you can count the Goldfish crackers she was in the middle of eating. It's all about memories, people.

—7—

How does Santa do it at your house? He brings each of our kids the one gift they've requested of him, which I usually dread. They don't watch TV, so their gift ideas come straight from their imaginations, not commercials.

As a result, I can rarely just go buy their gift at Target. They ask for things like a tan teddy bear with blue eyes and a pink bow around its neck. Or a pack of headbands for their Barbies that are blue with a diamond in the middle and a circle and a star on the outside (yes, that was a real request one year.) And Santa always delivers — so we usually find ourselves making something into the wee hours of the night.

This year I think we're in the clear. I love shopping online.

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