Our Christmas Card Pic

Creative pursuits are a big part of who I am, and I always find myself drawn to such outlets.  I have found that devoting most of my energy to being a wife and mother has been far more rewarding than any hobby, but God has been gracious in allowing me opportunities to imagine, dream, and create.  One of my largest annual projects is our Christmas card.  I usually attempt to do something cool with digital editing, which I've been in love with ever since I learned about it.  Last year, I didn't do much with it, but this year I decided to take on a project.  I was dreading it.  :-(  Paint Shop Pro was my primary software for so long, that it has been a major adjustment learning Photoshop.  I should have taken a class or gone through a bunch of tutorials, but who has time??  Anyway, yesterday I decided to push through if it killed me.  It nearly did!  I was at the computer almost nonstop from morning until 10 pm.  Poor Kylen was on his own most of the day.  I used Photoshop help, did internet searches, called Greg (who knows next to nothing about that program), cried, prayed, rested my head on the table.  What was exasperating was how close I was to being done.  It was like having a chocolate glazed, cream-filled doughnut dangling in front of your face just out of reach!  I knew what I wanted to do, I could read how to do it, but I couldn't get it to work.  And it wasn't just about getting the card done.  It was that I needed to figure this stuff out so I could move forward in using this software.  There were two major things I wanted to do.  One, I wanted the images I pasted in the background to look like they belonged there.  That meant refining their edges.  Two, I wanted to learn how to remove an object from a picture and have the program fix that area so you can't tell something was removed.  I finally figured out both yesterday, plus the bonus of how to add a shadow on a pasted image.  Phew!  I was a happy woman last night.  :-)  Thank you, Lord, for helping me with this task that was entirely unnecessary and unimportant in the grand scheme of life but still meant a lot to me.  Don't we serve a kind and loving God?