In regards to keeping up 2 pages a week when it is the end of the year and things such as Thanksgiving, pre-Christmas visiting friends and relatives, staking out Black Friday online-sales to avoid malls, Christmas, after-Christmas friends and relatives…..I am not currently at that speed. For the rest of 2010, I’m adjusting to an all-encompassing “Holiday Schedule”. Not because I don’t say “Merry Christmas” (this is a sensitive subject for many in the area I live), but because I’ve had trouble maintaining 2 pages a week starting right around Thanksgiving and it will still be like that around New Year’s Eve…..

In short, Monday-only updates until 2011.

Christmas Velociraptor likes to hang out with Charmander, but Psyduck isn't so keen on it.

Following up on the previous post about how I’m a sucker for dinosaurs: It’s Christmas, which is always the best time for dinosaurs! …Okay maybe not everybody, but dinosaurs had a tendency to be a the top of my list as a little kid. I still have an infamous Brachiosaurus that my mom begrudgingly allowed to arrive for me at Christmas when I was 4 or 5. She threw in some form of doll ‘out of spite’, but I’m fairly certain it was stomped on by the Brachiosaurus named Diney and the T-rex that accompanied him.

Diney made his way to college with me when I ran into him years later, and now hangs out in the living room. Last year, I suggested to James that we draw dinosaur-Christmas themed ornaments for our not-very-ornamented tree. Being freshly-married, we didn’t have many ornaments to start with, save for some various Pokemon phone-charms, and did not have the foresight to ask for some on our wedding registry. (It was June, so they probably would have been for sale SOMEwhere…)

Honestly, I'll never remember to call him an Apatosaurus, and Bronto Santa has a better ring to it. Also: Triceratops with giant candy cane!

Using the power of the mighty printer-friendly Shrinky-Dink paper (or some other brand of shrink-based paper, I forget), we sketched out dino ideas in a sketchpad, scanned the favorites, and swapped out who inked and colored which dinos digitally. After printing a couple per sheet, they were separated with scissors, given some pre-punched string-holes, and baked until they were ornament-tastic! After stringing some goldish cord in them,  the dino-Christmas awesomeness was tree-ready.

James and I are currently in the process of developing the 2010 Dinosaur Ornaments for the tree. Right now they are still floating in a sketchbook (see below for secret candid sketchbook snap-shot), but we should have another 5 or 6 to decorate with soon. Hopefully we can fit them high enough so our cats will not knock them everywhere, as they have been known to take Santa Stego for a few baps around the house.

Christmas Dinosaurs of the FUUUTURE