Ho-Ho-Holidays

I hope your holiday season is off to a good start.  The months just fly by, don't they?  I can't believe it is now December.  My favorite holiday is Halloween, followed by Thanksgiving.  I love Thanksgiving because I get to spend it catching up with family members I don't get to see too often, and the food at our Thanksgiving potluck is always wonderful.  It's become somewhat of a holiday tradition to go shopping on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving.  We're never ones to get too crazy, though.  It's more of a family bonding experience for us.

Now I like Christmas, but it's also somewhat of a stressful time for me.  I try my best to not let it get too bad, and it helps to stick to a budget and not give elaborate gifts.  I start playing Christmas music from November 1st all the way up until Christmas Day.  I've been baking up a storm of holiday treats--cookies, fruitcake, chex mix--but I still feel not-quite-right.  Things out of my control contribute to the craziness of the season.  I've noticed that drivers get extra careless and reckless from November on.  I also seem to encounter more rude people.  One lady came into the library and she was so unpleasant.  I wish I could tell her that she needed to remove her Santa hat if she was going to be that nasty.  I have to tell you that my heart isn't really in the holiday spirit this year.  I think it's definitely true that depression is more common around the winter holiday season.  I think I've got some of those holiday blues.

My dolls continue to be a source of comfort for me.  Even though I can go months without touching them, when I do sit down to fix them up, my mood definitely starts to lift.  One thing that I do is to participate in holiday swaps.  For a few years, I've joined the Holiday Swap at the Dal House forum.  That one is a Dals only swap--and since I've had just two Dals for the longest time, they'd alternate years.  In September of this year, I added two more Dals from ebay (one of them might be headed out, though).  I think I only can handle at the most three Dals at a time.  Anyway, I thought the new girl, Misa the DRTa would get a turn. 

 
Basically, you pick your Dal and then come up with a theme of some sort.  Misa is a little girl who has an odd fascination with skulls.  She's into skull-reading, and she thinks that Jack of The Nightmare Before Christmas is the coolest ever.  Anyway, you pick your Dal and theme, then another participant secretly picks you or is assigned as your sending partner and gets to work making or shopping for things that fit your Dal's theme.  That way, you can be sure that you'll get something you'll like instead of just random castoffs that you have no use for.  It is really fun, at least I think so anyway.  The dollar amount is $25, but I usually go over that since I like to spoil my partner.  Misa's swap parcel arrived yesterday, but since it was late when I got home, I couldn't open it.  I think we'll get around to it on Sunday.

This year, the Dollchemy forum came into existence.  Because I'm also quite active there, I thought I'd love to participate in Dollchemy's 1st Holiday Swap!  It was pretty much set up the same way as the Dal House swap, but all 1:6 Groove Dolls were welcome to join (no Ai Dolls, Pang-jus or minis).  Since my two Isul boys hardly have any clothes between them, I thought this would be a good chance to build up their wardrobe.  I decided to enter Kaz the Mori Motonari.  

Kaz received his swap gifts from Mollie the Melize & Lilcurly, all the way from the U.K.!  I took lots of photos and posted them on my flickr account https://www.flickr.com/photos/justlikewasabi/, but here are a few quick snaps.

Kaz was surprised by the avalanche of gifts!


 
I didn't expect so many little gifts for Kaz, but I think he was really happy about it since this was the first swap he ever participated in.  He'd always been a tad bit envious of Moe the Jolie and Tekka-Maki the Tezca getting swap goodies year after year.

I was most excited for these chocolates!  I've heard so much about Kinder Surprise, that I was thrilled to finally get the chance to try it for myself.  All expectations fulfilled and surpassed.  The Toffee Crisp was also really delicious.  I'm pacing myself with the others, but I'm sure I'll enjoy trying all the different varieties of U.K. sweets.


 

Kaz got so many cool things!
 
Lilcurly made a lot of the items--the Minecraft creeper felt toy, and all of the t-shirts, not to mention the Umbreon hoodie that Kaz is wearing.  I felt that she went above and beyond fulfilling the swap requirements.  She's a true treasure, that girl--and she's one of the reasons that the Pullip Hobby is so awesome.

Bonus Shot of me being a Pokedork in my own Umbreon hooded jacket.  I made that one year as a Halloween costume.