Gift Art by Ellie, Theater Arts by Gina and Haigen

Here are some adorable sketches by Ellie, of Lily, Rosie and Storm. Ellie has been a reader of Five Dollar Mail for years, and I so appreciate her support.

I really like the "anime" look of these. Very cute! And you all know how much I love seeing your take on the characters, so you can imagine these really made my day. Thank you, Ellie, both for your art and for your enthusiastic comments and readership!

I have a Christmas special post on the way, and I'll post it by the weekend. I had quite a bit catch up to me this week, and though I really wanted to post something for you tonight, realistically it's probably not gonna happen. I've been working overtime trying to get ready for a Christmas Pageant this weekend and between that and trying to wrap gifts and get ready for the holiday, and my daughter being out of school, I had to come to the realization I'm spread just a little too thin this week and I'm having a hard time keeping my head in the game.

On the other hand, I haven't really done set-props-costumes in a long time and I have to admit it's been a lot of fun. I turned my new sunroom...which doesn't really have any real furniture in it yet...into a scene shop. Even as I type this, the floor is covered with glitter and there are three sets of angel wings drying in front of the electric fireplace, waiting for my daughter to come in here and glue some feathers on them.

It's her first pageant. She's the angel that carries the star. I'm the old folkie with the tape measure around her neck, playing autoharp in the back.

What's cool about this thing is that it's basically a bunch of kids from the projects that showed up around Thanksgiving looking for some community activities to get involved with, led by a fourteen year old girl who's taken it upon herself to keep the kids from the neighborhood over there out of trouble. Seriously, if that doesn't sound like the premise of some sort of Lifetime Christmas special, I don't know what does. But anyway, I felt pretty privileged to be helping out on this endeavor before, but after the horror of last Friday, it's become like an obsession to me. Like some kind of prescription medication I need to keep taking to avoid curling up in a ball and staying that way. I guess we all find our ways to cope.

I wish you all could have seen them in their costumes at dress rehearsal earlier this week. Sweet.


So, hope you're all having a peaceful holiday season, and keep an eye out for an update this weekend at the very latest.