There is no doubt about it: the winter holiday season can be one of the most stressful times of the year. Faced with the potential round of gift giving, mounting fuel bills, year-end bills, cold weather, bad roads, work duties that seem to be ever-increasing or lay-offs and other disasters…the array of stress-makers is endless.

I had already struck off one of the problems of the season: Early in November, I had gently let my family know that due to increased numbers and a tight budget, they could expect home-made gifts.

As a child, I loved the paper dolls my aunt drew for me. I can do this, I thought. I can draw paper dollies for the girls.

The first doll took forever, the second went better. When I mentioned the project to my aunt, she enlightened me. “I traced a lot of the ones I drew, you know,” she said. “I didn’t free-hand them.” Oh. That didn’t make any less magical the paper dolls from my childhood, and it DID make this project more possible.

A chance comment made by my daughter gave me an idea for gifts for the adults on my list. Over the years I have collected a lot of photographs and family stories. By using presentation soft ware, I could prepare vignettes of family history illustrated with scanned copies of the pictures. The paper dolls were something of a scary project; but the family history was kind of fun (although sometimes a little sad).

However, bills are not the only things that seem to pile up in December. December 19th saw my last student out the door, not to return till the New Year-and my home computer housed two very unfinished projects. So when my daughter called on Saturday evening, and said, “Hi Mommy! We are coming to visit you on Monday!”, I was in a panic. Simultaneously, my roommate’s car broke down just before time for a holiday pilgrimage to his family home, my second job needed training days, and I had a project due the day I returned to school in January. I spent Sunday working on the family tree presentation. Daughter had a change of schedule and arrived Sunday evening with all five grandkids in tow.

After a flurry of greetings, the children settled down in front of the television, watching videos they had brought with them-except for the oldest grandson who settled into a series of noisy two-player video games with my roommate. Daughter and I looked over my unfinished project. When she had finished looking, my darling little girl said, “It needs more pictures of you, Mommy.” After that heart-warming comment, we settled in to working on the project together. One by one the sprats were sent off to bed (I keep a variety of folding beds for over-night guests). After the last one departed to slumberland, my daughter, roommate and I sat around swapping stories till four in the morning.