This was a fun layout to create. Our entire house has been transformed into a Christmas wonderland. It’ s funny that before kids we barely put up a tree but now I love to make it all sparkly and shiney with Christmas decorations.
Christmas Decoration
I love online shopping, I only enjoy shopping when I have nothing I have to buy. The computer age is definitely my age! I have most of my shopping done and only a few items left to purchase. I find shopping for my husband the toughest which explains why his list is empty and NOT crossed off. He isn’t the best at dropping hints and rarely asks for anything! Oh well….
Things to do
This was a really tough prompt for me. My best and worse Christmas were the same year and even now I still feel a lot of sadness when I think about it or look at photos from that Christmas.
My journalling reads:
We had journeyed through a very long and painful process to build our family. Three Christmases earlier, in 2000, I had been pregnant and miscarried a few days after Christmas. We had started the IVF process in early 2002 and finally after three attempts we had one successful pregnancy resulting in Cordelia and Curtis, who arrived on November 8, 2003.
I was looking forward to a Christmas with my new family. A Christmas to celebrate our triumph over infertility and our gratitude for these wonderful little blessings we’d been given.
As Christmas approached it became clear that the fantasy I had in my head was not going to be my reality. I was tired, a mom to two new babies, recovering from a C-section, and we had so many people who we felt we couldn’t let down. Our Christmas suddenly became about keeping everyone else happy, making sure that all the people who wanted to see our babies were accommodated. Christmas wasn’t about our family at all, I felt like a runaway train, completely out of control of our Christmas plans. I was too tired to fight the wave of persistent planning and pressure. I was too naïve and thought someone would see that we needed space and give it to us. By the time Christmas was finished, I was miserable. I was angry with everyone for not being considerate of our space and our needs. I was angry with myself for letting everyone push me around whether it was intentional or not. I regret this part of our Christmas.
You can see that it was a bittersweet Christmas for me, it was the best Christmas because of the kids and the worse because it wasn’t the Christmas I wished for.
Christmas Joy Christmas Regrets
I loved this prompt, I love the record of my boring day. I think it will be fun to see what I do each year on this day. Except for the tag, all the other supplies I made myself in Photoshop.
Thanks for taking a peek!
A Perfect Christmas
My Layout is simple to turn the focus to the journalling and the dream of the perfect Christmas.
Here is the journalling:
“Christmas Eve is a quiet day spent with just the four of us and maybe a surprise visitor. Surprise visitors are a treat because you don’t stress out about them coming over. I love having Christmas Carols on and maybe spending the afternoon watching a Christmas movie or playing some games. Supper is a quiet easy affair since we’ll be eating such a large meal tomorrow night.
As evening falls and the roads get quiet, maybe we’ll go for a short walk or drive to look at Christmas lights. Once we are home, we prepare food for Santa and his Reindeer, it’s a long night and they might be hungry. Afterwards, the kids will open one gift, Christmas PJs. We will read a Christmas story. The best part of the night is convincing our excited children to go to sleep. They are alert to every noise and are sure they hear Santa with every creak of the house and swoosh of a passing car. I enjoy the wonder and excitement they feel. We are excited too, we haven’t put any gifts under the tree unless they came from someone else and the kids saw it arrive. I like preparing the surprise of waking up to a tree loaded with presents.
Once the kids have fallen asleep, DH and I take out all the gifts. Slowly we put together the big gifts that won’t be wrapped and need to be put together to make for a perfect Christmas morning. It is fun to spend the time together making Christmas magical for our kids, each of us enjoying the other’s company. Once the stockings have been filled and put in the kids’ bedrooms, we will cuddle together, in front of the Christmas tree or the fire and enjoy a glass of wine and linger in the wonder that we have created. There is something special about the quiet of Christmas Eve that is so unique and cannot be created any other time of year. I love to stay there in DH’s arms enjoying the peacefulness and thinking about the excitement of the next morning.
On Christmas morning, we wake up early; I can hear the kids in their rooms, playing with all the surprises they found in their stockings. Quietly, we sneak out of bed. DH will go make coffee; I will turn on the tree. Once we are ready, we sneak back into bed and start making enough noise for the kids to notice. Together, they burst into our room, “Santa’s been here, Santa’s been here.” We tease them and say “No way, we stayed up all night and he never came.” They’ll argue, “No he was here, really here!” and pull us out of bed and race down the hall to the stairs all the while making sure we are still behind them. DH and I will giggle and laugh, holding hands as we let their excitement infuse our souls.
Once down the stairs, we’ll see all the presents Santa left for us. DH and I will act surprised. We will tell the kids that we need to get snacks and drinks for opening gifts; all four of us will run to the kitchen. DH will get the coffee; I’ll grab some fruit and dry cereal to nibble on. Each of the kids will grab a thermos of milk. We want to prolong the anticipation as long as possible so DH and I take our time watching the kids jump and dance around the kitchen as they try to hurry us along.
As we make our way back to the tree, the kids run ahead and make sure we have spots to set up our snacks and to sit down. Now the hard part; the hunt for the pickle ornament in the tree. Whoever finds the pickle ornament chooses the first gift to open. Slowly we each get a turn opening a gift. As each gift is opened, the kids take time to play with what they’ve opened enjoy the shiny newness of their toys. Opening gifts is a relaxing and slow event, each of us enjoying the excitement of the unknown.
Once the gifts are all opened, we get dressed for the day. We are not picky, you can wear clean PJs, dress up or go casual; whatever makes you the happiest. Today is about hanging out and being together not being picture perfect for some formal dinner.
I put out lots of healthy snacks and piles of Christmas treats for us to nibble through the day, today is not a day for regularly scheduled meals. Today we will play board games, watch movies, read stories, and DH will watch football. I will cook a big Turkey with stuffing and mashed potatoes; we will have gravy and some vegetables. Dessert will be more Christmas baking. We may or may not be joined by friends or family, I am happy with whatever company shows up. It is nice to have special friends and family join us and linger after dinner, each taking turns to help with a new toy or play with a new game.
After supper, we will unwind with some stories and maybe a bath for the kids. They will be tired from all the anticipation and excitement of the last 24 hours and fall asleep as soon as their sweet little heads hit the pillow. As they settle into a long sleep, DH and I end our day cuddling in front of the tree, enjoying a Christmas drink while talking about the fantastic day we had and how blessed we are to be able to give our kids such a magical Christmas.
This is my perfect Christmas, simple and meaningful!”
And here is the layout:
Some background:
B is very shy and puts himself through an enormous amount of anxiety when he will going somewhere or doing something new. The kind of anxiety that involves peeling him off my leg or arm. We are working on it but it will be awhile before he gets over it.
Grandma Laurette is my grandma; she died two years ago but the kids talk about her constantly. “A” had a special connection to her and still misses her terribly.
The Story:
Yesterday we were driving to Ikea with the intent to pickup some closet organzing tools and give the kids some time to play at the Magic Forest. They had never been to the magic forest and B was very nervous. As we are driving he begins crying.
“Momma I’m too scared, I all shop with you,” says my scared little man.
“You know, you are just nervous, and that’s OK, Momma gets nervous too. Last week when I flew to Edmonton, I was nervous. I had never flown alone and I wasn’t sure where to go in the airport. I knew Dadda would meet me at the other end so I just kept thinking about how excited I was to see Dadda,” I say hoping this will convince him to try out the magic forest.
B pipes up “Yeah, it’s kind of like when Grandma Laurette died, except you went to Edmonton!”
For those of you unfamiliar, Calgary and Edmonton are always competing. So is Edmonton like Heaven or was it bad I went to Edmonton instead of Heaven! I’m sure many Albertans have a strong opinion either way.
By the way he did go to the Magic Forest and LOVED it!
I picked up a copy of Canadian Scrapbooker yesterday after I had finished my December 3 layout. They had an article “Playing with Postage” by Connie Nichol. I was inspired to alter my layout. Since the layout was about Christmas Cards, I was going for a very postal feeling (not the bad kind). Here is the new layout, what do you think?
Reload - Christmas Cards
Here is my layout for today’s Prompt, I promise to be a little more chatty later right now I am on the hunt for the funniest Christmas Photo Ever, check back later for a good laugh! I should give credit for some of my digital supplies: LaWanna Designs, Jessica Sprague, Brusheezy and Ali Edwards Font.
Sometimes you just need a giggle – so here you go!
Let me set the mood. Two newish parents, two children who have never had their photos taken with Santa. We had gone out Christmas shopping and had not planned to have photos with Santa. When we walked into the mall there was no lineup for a photo with Santa. Being a strong believer in life presenting you with unexpected opportunities, I jumped at the chance to have a photo with Santa. We paid our money and carefully placed our precious little angels on Santa’s lap. They were so excited to be there and I think Santa was very thrilled to have them!
A and B at the age of 2 years 1 month
I hope you had a good giggle, I know I do everytime I look at this photo.
Today we talk about the weather. We live in the Calgary so the weather is always the cause for conversation. It’s too cold for summer, to warm for winter, to dry for anything, to much wet snow in the spring.
Here is my layout for JYC. Our prompt was talk about our weaher, what like for Christmas, in my case I love a snowy Christmas. I suppose growing up in Canada means a snowy Christmas and for me it is the perfect backdrop to the holidays. I have also attached my continuation of my Manifest. (The fonts for my journalling are CK-Ali Edwards).
On another note, I have two little people helping me clean house today. It is nice that they offer to help, I am not sure how much help it is. It can take less than 45 seconds to vacume the kitchen floor if you are five years old, who knew. I, on the other hand, like to give it a good two to five minutes of attention before moving on to the next area. I find they have reached an age where they only want to help with the chores they want to do. So they don’t want to pick up their toys, clean their rooms or put away their clean laundry. I often think, I am tired of cooking their meals, I wonder how long before that doesn’t suit them? I’m sure I couldn’t outlast the misery that is a starving child but I do wonder if I stopped doing everything I do for them how they’d cope. That is an experiment for January, not December.
I did convince them that Santa was doing a “Clean Bedroom” inspection this week and they needed to clean their bedrooms very well yesterday. I did get the desired result, they worked really hard and did a very fine job for a pair of five year olds. The downside, when the wind blew in last night and started rattling the house they were scared of Santa and the Reindeer and wouldn’t go to sleep. Maybe next year Santa should invest in a super-duper high-powered spotting scope he can use from the comfort of his sitting room while sitting next to a roaring fire enjoying Mrs. Claus’ baking!
Here is my Manifesto for Shimelle’s JYC class and my completed book cover:
Manifesto
The writing is a little tough to read, this is what it says:
I wanted the statements to be simple and to the point. I could have gone into great detail about each point but I think the page is perfect the way it is. I am playing with the idea of creating a second page that is more like a letter to my family about why these points are important to me; I think it would be a very personal piece for my family to cherish later in life. Also, I am one of those people who likes to see the progress or change of anything overtime; the change in a city, the aging of a building, even the metamorphosis of a person’s creativity. Since I do not scrapbook chronologically, this would be a great marker for where I was creatively each year.
All the photos on the page above were taken by my very wonderful and generous friend: Pamela Mullins, http://www.mullinsphotogroup.com/ is her link if you would like to view some of her beautiful photographic images. She is very talented!
As I am typing this I have decided to create a second layout with all the details, this will take me longer since I am not a great wordsmith and want it to be enjoyable to read. Although bloggin is somewhat like talking to myself; talking things out is a good way to hear what you need to do!
For those of you who are interested, here is my album cover. I love how old and Christmassy it looks.
Evolution of a Woman 
You’ve been saying…