A Very Merry Christmas

We had a quiet, cozy Christmas at home this year with just our little family.  It was a sweet time, but we were all pretty tired!! :) 

It started with being up late the night before.  I had most of the Christmas gifts wrapped and ready to go, but our 7 year old was so excited about Santa, she wouldn't go to sleep.  Finally we had everything ready and crawled into bed.  We awoke a short time later, 1:30am, to an even more excited 7 year old who realized Santa had indeed visited!  She continued to wake me up in intervals throughout the night.  I'm not sure she ever went back to sleep!  We finally opened our gifts and all chaos, excitement and fun ensued! 

We then had a Christmas brunch with egg casserole and fruit salad.  The kids played while we tried to pick up the leftover "wrappings".  Later, after an afternoon nap for my youngest, we all snuggled up under a cozy blanket and watched "A Christmas Story" while munching on popcorn.  Dinner was leftovers from our Christmas Eve meal and then everyone to bed early after a wonderful day of sweet memories! 

I just love Christmas and I'm always sad to see it come and go so quickly.  I do enjoy looking forward to the new year though, and the fresh start that it always brings.  I've been thinking about my "One Word" for 2011 and I'm excited to share it soon!

I hope you and yours had a wonderful Christmas and I wish you all the best in the coming new year!

Happy Creating,
Jennifer

Traditions

I'm so enjoying this special time of the year and all of the fun holiday traditions that come along with it! We have several favorites that we continue each Christmas season!

One thing the kids look forward to is our Christmas Elf, Alfie, coming back to our home from the North Pole (Elf on the Shelf)! Each night he reports back to Santa how the behavior has been around here and then returns to a new "spot" each day. The kids race around to see where he's hiding each morning! They've even enjoyed talking to him and sending notes back to Santa with him. So cute!

The kids also look forward to rediscovering our Little People Nativity Set.  It comes out once a year with the holiday decor and it is like a brand new toy!   They have so much fun playing with it!  Its wonderful because it is a set that is kid friendly and can be handled and enjoyed without the worry of it getting broken.

Another special tradition is our basket of Christmas books! Much like our Nativity Set, we keep these packed up with the holiday decorations so they only come out once a year. The kids love looking through them again and remembering their favorites! We have several including The Sweet Smell of Christmas by Patricia M. Scarry, Merry Creature Christmas by Dandi Daley Mackall, and God Gave Us Christmas by Lisa T. Bergren. We love to cozy up under a warm blanket and read together!

Each night at dinner we try to read an Advent Devotion from this sweet little book, Getting Ready for Christmas.  It is perfect for the kids, short but gives us a verse to discuss and an activity to do as a family.


Our family also enjoys a fun family holiday movie night! We break out the popcorn, cuddle up next to the twinkling lights and watch favorites like Elf or the Polar Express. This year we plan to check out The Search for Santa Paws and Disney's A Christmas Carol.

At least one evening during the season we love to grab some hot chocolate and drive around to see all of the Christmas lights and other decorations in our neighborhood and those surrounding us. We listen to holiday music on the radio or a CD and enjoy the view!  Each year I treat myself to a new Christmas CD.  This year my favorites are Glee: the Christmas Album and Chris Tomlin's Glory In the Highest: Christmas Songs of Worship.

Another thing I try to do every year is put a new picture ornament on the tree for both of the kids.  It is so neat to pull out the collection of ornaments each Christmas and see how the kids have changed!  This will also be a great gift for the kids to have for their own Christmas trees someday!

These are a few of the things we do to celebrate this season.  I'd love to hear all about your favorite Christmas traditions! :)  I hope you are enjoying the holidays and treasuring the memories!

December Daily Foundation

The holiday season is in full swing and I hope yours is off to a great start! We've been busy here with decorating, shopping and planning. I've also been trying my best to keep up with my Dec. Daily album!

Here is a look at the foundation pages...
For the front and back covers I used two pieces of cardboard inserts I had saved from photo frames I bought a while ago. I covered them with Christmas scrapbooking papers and used some embellishments from my stash.




Front cover







Back cover




Close up of embellishments on front cover



For the inside pages I used scrapbooking papers, cut them to 6" x 8" and glued two sheets together to make them stronger.  This gave me the front and back of each page in the book.



The patterned paper on the right page is stapled to create a pocket.



I bound it all together with book rings and really like how it turned out, especially since I spent nothing and used just what I had on hand! I've been keeping up with my journaling each day, and I'm working on page construction as I have time. I'll share some of my finished pages soon!

Hope your December is off to a great start!

Happy Creating,

Jennifer

December Daily

I’m so excited it is December 1st!!! For the past 3 Christmas Seasons I’ve followed Ali Edwards and her December Daily Project. The basic idea is to create a mini album/journal to document the season quickly and easily. At the end of the month (I end mine on Christmas Day) I have a special keepsake album that chronicles all of our fun and festive holiday happenings as well as meaningful traditions, thoughts about the season and any other special moments I want to remember and document. This album really gets to the heart of what the season means to me and my family.

The key is to keep it simple!!! I actually created the foundation of my album (bare bones so to speak) over the past few weeks. Now I am all ready to begin adding content starting today, Dec. 1st, but you can also create you album as you go. Each day I take a picture and write a short note documenting a special moment, tradition, event, memory, etc. to add to my album/journal. Keeping it short, sweet and simple makes it doable in the chaos of the busy season. I have to say it is such a treat to look back on the years past and see what has changed (or stayed the same) and revisit those special moments with my loved ones!


Here are a few pages from my December Daily Album 2009:

Cover




Dec. 3rd
Chloe the cat knocking down my Nutcracker display!

 



Dec. 4th
I also like to document the everyday moments.
Photo idea:  take pictures of your Christmas shopping receipts and/or bags of gifts.



Use an envelope for a page.



Inside the envelope you can hold extra pictures and journaling. 
This page is part of our Dec. 9th visit to Santa



Dec. 9th

Dec. 10th

Extra pictures for Dec.10th.
I glued them back to back and inserted them into the book rings as their own page.
See other side below:




I’d love for you to play along this year!! It isn’t too late… Join me today and begin creating an album or journal to remember the season! Don’t make it too difficult!! I just used Christmas papers and embellishments from my scrapbooking stash and haven’t bought anything new to include this year. If you aren’t a scrapbooker, you can find lots of Christmas themed paper, stickers, etc. at your local craft stores (Michaels, Hobby Lobby) and places like Target and Wal-Mart. Another idea is to use found/recycled items like cardboard, holiday wrapping paper, old Christmas cards, tags, etc. and put together you album with book rings. I’ve used several of these items as well and will show you my foundation pages in the next few days! :) Looking forward to some holiday creative fun!!

Be sure to let me know if you are joining in!! :)

Happy Creating!
Jennifer