Thanksgiving in July and Christmas in July

My mother is quite crafty.  She used to do plastic canvas, sewing stuff, etc.  Now it's scrapbooking and making her own cards.  Her cards are really nice and I'm not just saying that because she's my mother.  Anyway, every once in a while she tells me I should make my own cards.  I did twice.  I made my own Christmas cards a few years ago.  One year I made my own Valentine's Day cards too. In April, as you know from previous blogs, I went to Arizona to visit one of my friends.  While we were shopping one day, I saw some cute Christmas stamps and after a brief discussion with my friend decided to buy them.  I decided I was going to try to make my own Christmas cards again this year.  Fast forward to this week.  Every year in July my mom and some of her friends do what they call "Christmas in July."  They all get together at her friend's house (one of Mom's friends) and they either have to wear something Christmasy or bring sometime Christmasy or something along those lines.  Apparently, some years her friend decorates a Christmas tree and they'll have Christmas music playing.  Anyway, the reason for this get together is so they can all make their Christmas cards.  Since they are all teachers, they have much more free time in the summer to make the cards than they do in December.  Come to think of it, most people don't have a lot of free time in December.  I've been invited a couple of times, but I was never available in the past.  Go figure this year I have no plans because I'm on vacation and no invite, but I digress.  So I decided since I had this week off, I would attempt to start my cards.  So Monday afternoon, I went to the craft store and bought ink, markers, cardstock, paper, etc.  While I was there, I decided to look for a new 4th of July decoration for my door.  I don't really like the one I have that much.  I didn't like what they had up front too much so I went to the holiday aisle and what did I see????  THANKSGIVING DECORATIONS!  Now I like Thanksgiving, but it is JULY.  This explains why I can never find Thanksgiving decorations in October/November when I look for them, you know when people are actually thinking about Thanksgiving.  When I was at the store, the 4th of July hadn't happened yet and they had turkeys up.  I don't want to be thinking about turkeys on July 1st--no disrespect to the turkeys or Thanksgiving.  And yes, the irony isn't lost on me.  I'm complaining about Thanksgiving in July and yet I'm planning for Christmas in July.  Anyway, the cards are not up to the quality of Mom's, but they're started.  I remembered why I don't usually make my own cards.  It is expensive and time consuming.  I was looking at my Christmas card list from last year and I send/give cards to nearly 60 people.  That's a lot of cards to make!  I think for Christmas 2014 we'll be cheesy and do a Christmas card with a wedding picture or something and the following year I'll go back to buying them at the stores.  If I'm smart, I'll buy them after Christmas 2014 so they'll be on sale and I'll have them cheap for Christmas 2015.  Anyway, I'll keep plugging away at the cards and maybe I'll have them done by Thanksgiving--you know around the time they'll be putting out the St. Patrick's Day decorations.  :-) Happy 4th everyone!  Enjoy your day!  Happy Birthday America!