Scrooge and other crappy stuff

Ok, so the cartoon for the Scrooge is not crappy. In fact, I love it. It was a holiday tradition for my husband and I to watch it, as well as Frosty, Charlie Brown Christmas, and several other holiday cartoons. I haven't brought myself to watch any of them this year. In fact, I didn't even watch "the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" until a week or two ago. Cut me some slack...I'm coping as best as I can. Heck, I consider it a step forward that I not only sent Christmas cards this year, I made each and every one! That was a major feat. Anyhow, I made this layout yesterday, for a scraplifting challenge. The layout was inspired by ScrappinFan19 on scrapbook.com. The picture is one that was taken by my grandmother at my husband's funeral (morbid, but I admit that I'm glad to have it). It's his bunker (a.k.a. turnout) gear on the front of the engine. They guys spotlighted it with rescue lights. The engine and ambo were both draped in black, as is the custom when we mourn the loss of a fellow firefighter/EMT. I thought it was so sweet of the guys to take care of these details.

However, I am not the only one dealing with difficult things and challenges this holiday season. My wonderful aunt is undergoing testing to figure out what in the heck is going wrong with her

body. Lung cancer has been ruled out, thank God. However, we still don't really know what's going on. I figured she could use some encouragement while waiting on test results, so I made her this card with a cute little duck image.

I purchased this image at Michelle's scrapbooking and more back in November. Isn't she cute? She makes me smile. I colored her with copics, then highlighted the image with glossy accents and a blue stardust pen. I gave the umbrella frog some googly eyes for a bit of whimsy. The sentiment was just printed on my computer. I know I have a stamp that says basically the same thing, but darned if I could find that sucker. I hand drew the little puddle and the raindrops coming down...not the best work, but I think it adds to the sense of fun that they're not perfect. Yeah, that's my story, and I'm stickin' to it!

As always, thanks for looking and leaving comments. I really appreciate each and every one. And thanks again to those of you who have prayed and sent positive thoughts for my aunt. Hopefully, we're getting closer to figuring out the mystery so that we can help her on the road to recovery.