5 Days Off

And I couldn't be happier! William has to work today, but then he is off the rest of the time. I'm staying home with the little one today; she wants to play Candy Land and Chuttes and Ladders. :) We'll probably scrapbook some too. I have some cleaning I want to get done in case the in-laws come over tonight; William ordered all his computer parts to be shipped to them and if they come in today they're driving them up. I want to continue cleaning out and getting rid of things too. Amanda has a great little challenge on Lifetime Moments going on with a quick layout challenge and cleaning challenge everyday to help us get ready for Winter Scrapfest. Those challenges have been just what I needed; I have cleared out and straightened out so much of my scraproom already! They've gotten me in the mood to clear out things in the rest of the house too.
I want to get our dinning room finished this weekend too. All we have to do is clean the floor and move the furniture around. Then I want to get all this Christmas stuff down and put away. I may work on that some today and just leave the tree until New Years. I always love the first of the year because I'm ready for changes. :)
I got my Christmas pictures back from Fototime yesterday; they look great! I think I like them better than ClarkColor or Winkflash. And, since the .06 per print special is good until the end of the year, I'm frantically trying to upload all my fall pics and get them printed too. I sent them twice now to ClarkColor and both times there was a problem. I can understand that, but what I don't like is that they just let my order sit and sit both times until I emailed them about it. That's when they proceeded to tell me there was a problem with the upload. They should have let me know that as soon as they tried to process my order. Anyway, it's Fototime for me from now on.

Day 18 - Dinner

This was a great subject for me to write about. We stayed home just the three of us this year for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and did our traveling before hand. I wanted us to have a special dinner Christmas Eve and we did. I wrote the journaling as it had not happened yet and didn't go into the details of the items that we had last minute. We ended up having a great Christmas Eve meal and night together.

Day 17

Another quick one; just trying to get caught up. Lots of Jen Wilson here. Ribbon is from A Whimsy Holiday kit I credited earlier, but everything else (besides date) is from Jen Wilson. Can you tell I'm a huge fan? :)

So Far Behind - Day 16

What a week! William and I both ended up with the stomach virus early last week. Luckily Rylie never got it. I was pretty sick and even missed work last Tuesday. William was a little better off than me, but not much. At least I didn't gain weight over the holidays. :) With being sick and then traveling for Christmas I fell really behind on my Christmas journal. I'm hoping to get caught up in a few days. Here is my entry for Dec. 16. Really simple using mostly the Holiday Sampler by Shabby Princess. The word art is from the Holly Jolly kit and the tree is by Jen Wilson. Off to do more pages...

Getting Caught Up

I had fallen several days behind on my Christmas Journal. With trying to finish up shopping, making cards for the Holiday Mart at work and other just general tasks to be done, I had not had much time this week for my journal. I had been reading the prompts each day and checking out all the beautiful work everyone has been doing. There is so much talent in this class! Everyone is doing such beautiful journals!!
I got some new goodies by Jen Wilson this week and I have been using some of them on these pages. Jen is one of my favorite digital designers. The glittery alpha, papers (except the pink one), charms, tree, notepapers, presents, off white snowflakes and tag are all hers. The red ribbon on the visitors page is by Shabby Princess. Everything else is from Holly Jolly or A Merry Season Kits that I have been using throughout this journal.
Day 13 - Presents; we do it differently in my family and in dh's family. In mine, the little ones have always played Santa and passed out all the gifts. I have fond memories of my cousin and I doing this at my grandparents' home when we were little. Now it falls to my youngest nephews and my own dd. There are so many people on my family that we open our gifts all at the same time. Once everything is opened, we go around and show off what we received. My dad then gets out his notebook he keeps every year with his list and calls out everyone's name and their gifts to make sure nothing was misplaced. We get a big laugh out of Daddy doing this each year. At dh's family, my dd is the only grandchild so she gets to help pass out the gifts. She will pass one out, then it gets opened while we all watch, and then she will pass out the next gift. It takes about as long to do this as it does in my family to get everything passed out and opened because there are so fewer people with him being an only child.
Day 14 - I love Christmas songs, but especially the old classic ones. My absolute favorite would be "White Christmas" sung by Bing Crosby. I love his rich, effortless sounding voice. A close second would be "The Christmas Song" sung by Nat King Cole. There's something about the nostalgia these old standards evoke in me that makes me feel all warm inside.
Day 15 - We are the visitors at Christmas time. We have to travel to both sets of families. I journaled about how we make sure we see as many people as we can, but we don't always get to be at every family celebration so we don't get to see some cousins that often any more. It's sad in a way, but the families are just too large for everyone to see everyone.

Day 12 - Looking Back

Today was all about reflecting back to those Christmas celebrations of long ago and those of today. Our families have always been pretty flexible and so our celebrations may be at different times each year, but we all get together and that's what's important. We're the only ones that have to travel in both of our immediate families and we're always home with our daughter on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning so depending on the year, we celebrate with our families on different days. Both sides have grown and expanded so much that only on dh's father's side do we still get together with the extended family, and each year it's different people that can attend. I miss those times with the ones that aren't here with us any longer and those that are, but are too far away and busy with their own families to see any more. I guess that's just part of growing older though.

Day 11 - Ornaments

I've been thinking about this one all day. I already had the photos taken when we put the tree up and knew what I wanted to say about them. I just wasn't sure about my design. I did this one in a hurry, about 20 minutes, but I really like it. It seems like sometimes the more I think about a layout the less I like the outcome. Easier on the brain, lol. And speaking of brain, my CT scan came back normal and my sister was impressed that not only did I have a brain but my head was normal. Such a comedian!
We have such a wide variety of ornaments on our tree; nothing matches, but almost every single ornament has some meaning. There's the ornaments from when dh and I were kids, Rylie's ornaments, ornaments from vacations, lots of cat ornaments, ornaments with my college mascot and crocketed snowflakes my MIL made. It's always fun when putting up the tree to reminisce about each one.
Credits are the same except the journaling stamp is by Katie Pertiet.

Day 10 - Wrapping Paper

I did this earlier today, but I've been having problems with Blogger today so I'm just not getting this one up. Today was all about wrapping paper. We were supposed to use some of the actual paper we're using this year so I decided to take some pics. We have a wide variety of papers this year as usual. I did buy some really pretty matching ones at Target to use in our Christmas card photo. Maybe the day or two after Christmas I can get some pretty paper cheap for next year. I also took a photo of our paper holder full and the mess that William left in the living room floor last night after wrapping gifts. :( I wanted a random mix of elements on this page to go with our random mix of paper patterns. This one was fun.

Today's prompt was to talk about our traditions. Our artistic side was to use some hidden journaling. Since I'm doing this digitally, I couldn't very well hide my anything to be pulled out later. Once my page is printed, I may go back and add a few photos showing more of our traditions that I can slide in behind the layout.
In my journaling I talked about several different traditions: getting a live tree each year - when and where we get it and when we decorate; baking during the holiday - what we cook and our favorites; our holiday meal at my in-laws - always homemade waffles with fresh strawberries, peaches and cream; and driving around the homes at the country club in my parents' town to see all the wonderful decorations.
The only thing I added to this layout besides my two main kits was the Stamp Act font for the title.

Here's a few things I was working on yesterday. I'm on the creative team for Tracy Collins (Retrodiva - www.retrodiva.net) and I was behind on some kits. I love her style! It fits so well with mine. The first one is from her Oktoberfest kit, the middle one (also for my 2P's and LM Elsie #17 challenge) is from her Inspired kit and the last one is from her Fill Your Heart Kit. Besides this journal, I hadn't done much digital scrapping lately. It seems to come in spurts for me whether it's digital or paper. It's felt good to so come computer scrapping again!

Day 8 A Day Late

Finally got this one finished this morning. I was off work yesterday, but Rylie and I baked for several hours, I didn't feel well and I had several digital layouts that I was behind on to create. I just love being on Tracy Collins' team; she makes some gorgeous kits! I will post some later.

Anyway, I did so much journaling on this one, but that's what this is about right? It is a journal. :) This is my favorite time of year and I just adore all the decorations so I wrote about that and about when we decorate and how I would like to add to our decorations in the future. I'm loving all the details in my holiday this journal is allowing me to dig into and get out on paper. Such fun!

I added the wood slide squares from Thankful kit by Jeanine Baechtold.

Day 7 - Shopping!

I really had fun with today's entry. I adore shopping for friends and family. I love to see their faces full of delight when they open up the perfect gift. I don't like shopping at the mall, however. I much prefer to sit on my computer and shop by the internet - such a wonderful thing! I can shop in my pajamas and not have to fight the crowds and traffic. I took a couple of pics tonight showing several wrapped gifts and some needing to be wrapped under our tree and also a photo of a few shopping bags. I wanted to do a really fun layout to go with today's theme. I'm really loving the bling right now so there's a lot of glitter and shimmery stuff on this one. So girly! Added to this one is A Merry Season Add-On kit; Notebook paper by Shabby Princess; Letters and holly from A Whimsy Holiday by EvaK Designs and Shelle Pukas.

William's parents came up this evening to see us and our Christmas decorations. This is the week for Granny Martin to stay with them, but she has been feeling good lately and thought she would be fine by herself a few hours while they visited. We had a great meal that they of course brought and a nice little visit. Rylie really loved them playing in her room with her. She even tucked Sherra into her little toddler bed. It was quite a site to see a 60-something woman all cozied up in a toddler bed. :) Anything for a grandchild I guess. G.W. brought Rylie a new sled too. It's larger than the previous one so it will be better in the long run. He got it at some antique shop and it was in good condition and I guess easier than fixing the old one. Now if we could just get some snow this winter so we can get some use out of it.

I was hoping I would her from my CAT scan today, but I never did. Maybe I'll hear something on Monday. The steroids helped a good bit the first couple of days, but now that it's the end of the week I'm starting to feel bad and really tired from the week again. My head is really stopped up with lots of pressure again tonight.

Tomorrow afternoon is my boss, Greg's surgery. He has colon cancer and is having to have his colon removed tomorrow. He is only 44 years old. Please remember him in your thoughts and prayers.

Dec. 6 Entry

I really had to think about today's entry. We were supposed to think back and reflect on a bad and a really good Christmas. I tried to think about this one off and on all day and really couldn't remember a bad time. Finally I remembered the few years my big sister had just gotten married and lived across the US in Seattle and couldn't make it home for Christmas. Those were the worst ones, but it had been such a long time ago I had almost forgotten. I'm thankful for today's prompt though. If not for that, I probably never would have documented anything bad about Christmas. I don't have pictures from those year although I'm sure my parents do somewhere. It really made me think and reinforced my feelings from the other day that all it takes for a perfect Christmas is to have the family all together. Each Christmas since has been great and for that we are very fortunate!

I'm very happy with my journaling today, but not so much with the layout. I just couldn't seem to get very creative tonight. That's alright thought because the memories and the journaling are documented and that's what's most important. I used a scan of an older paper layout I did of a Christmas celebration back in 2003 when all the family was together to symbolize the best Christmas times. Used my Shabby Princess jewels again. The alpha, glitter ribbon and glitter accents are from A Whimsy Holiday kit by EvaK Designs and Shelle Pukas at Digital Freebies. Glitter buttons are from A Merry Season add-on by Tracy Collins. Font in the title is MA Kulot.

Day 5 - Advent Calendar

This is how we countdown to Christmas. I got this little guy at Target several years ago and we just love him. Now that my daughter is old enough she helps us change the dates on him.
Extra credit on this one: journaling stamp by Katie Pertiet.

Dec. 4 Journal Entry - A Perfect Christmas

I really had to think on this one. My first thoughts for a perfect Christmas were the perfect home and wonderful food. But then as I thought some more, I realized that none of that would mean anything without my family there to share Christmas with me. I already have the perfect Christmas each year! I found these pictures from Pottery Barn online and used them on my page to show the perfectly decorated home.

I was still feeling pretty bad today so I called the doctor and got in this afternoon. My breathing test was good (but the asthma hasn't been bothering me lately), but he said my nose was really inflammed. He put me on Prednisone and scheduled me for a CAT scan on Wednesday afternoon. He said if it was an infection the antibiotics the other doctor gave me should have cleared it up easily and he's thinking all this junk in my head has been there a long time. I've never had a CAT scan of my sinuses (or anything for that matter) so he wanted to check it out and see what was in there. :) Hopefully this Prednisone will start clearing some of this mess up and I'll feel better in a couple of days. I sure don't want to be sick Friday when I have off with Rylie like I have been the last several times I've taken off of work. :(

Dec. 3 Journal Entry

I had so much fun with this page! I love coming up with a photo for our Christmas card each year and love having them all on this page together. The layout itself was fun too. I just kept throwing things on there...so much not my normal clean style, but I like it. I don't think I could ever be brave enough to try this on a paper page. That's one of the great things I love about digital; it's so easy to experiment! Besides the normal kits I've been using on my journal I added sequined flowers by Jen Wilson, jewels by Shabby Princess and journaling stamp by Katie Pertiet.
Thanks for all the comments on my entries! I love getting comments and have been trying to leave them as much as possible for others too. :)

Dec. 2 Journal Entry

I got my second entry finished this morning. I
plan on doing today's entry sometime today. We
worked around the house all day and night yesterday cleaning up, trowing away and decorating for Christmas. All that dust from the attic and decorations did me in. I woke up this morning to a really bad sore and swollen throat again. I felt bad Friday, but was better yesterday. I guess I tried to do too much too soon. I was able to get this page done and get my Christmas cards done and ordered before I went to lay back down earlier. Journaling on this page says:
Oh how I would love it if my Christmas mornings looked like this photo. Unfortunately, I have rarely had a white Christmas. Living in the South all my life means I have had a variety of Christmas weather. Usually it is cold enough for coats and fires in the fireplace. Sometimes it has been quite warm. But rarely do we get the white Christmas that I dearly yearn for. For me, a white Christmas tops my wish list each year. I can remember just a few in all of my 33 years. The year I got my little red wagon as a child we had a white Christmas. Also, a year or two after we were married we got mostly ice, but it still made our Christmas white so I wasn't disappointed. I look forward to the day when Rylie can wake up to a white Christmas morning.
Credits: paper and snowflakes from Holly Jolly kit by Nancy Rowe Janitz; date from A Merry Season by Tracy Collins (Retrodiva); brads from Seasonal Sampler by Shabby Princess. Font is LB Angela.

5 Things I've Enjoyed Today

1. Not having to work since Rylie's school is closed for the state championship football game this afternoon. Go JCS!
2. Having lots of time to get started on my journal (see posts below and photo in this post).
3. Cooking Cinnabon cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Yum!
4. Honey-lemon flavored cough drops. Help to nurse this sore throat I woke up with.
5. Cold temps. Much better than the hot days we've had lately. It's December; it's supposed to be cold. Too bad we didn't get any snow to go along with it.

I finally decided what I wanted to do with the outside of my journal for Shimelle's class. I got this scrapbook in a set of books at Hobby Lobby with their last 50% off sale. It was already green and black with the ribbon and I thought all it needed was a little red. I used Artic Frog letter stickers and some older Paper Bliss stickers I had laying around and voila!

Dec. 1 Journal Entry

Here is my entry for today. Very simple, but it gets the point across I think. Credits: paper, swirls and snowflake brush from Holly Jolly kit by Nancy Rowe Janitz; Happy Holidays word art from Seasonal Sampler by Shabby Princess; number stamp and staple from A Merry Season kit by Tracy Collins (Retrodiva).

Manifesto:

Here is my manifesto for my Christmas journal. I'm so excited about this class and look forward to creating this art book. I am doing my pages digitally and will print them out and put into my album. I am using a 6x6 scrapbook album that I already had. I'll post it once I get the cover finished. Credits: paper, stitches and button from Holly Jolly kit by Nancy Rowe Janitz; Note paper from Holiday Sampler by Shabby Princess; Christmas tree from A Merry Season kit by Retrodiva. Font is LB Angela.

Manifesto says:
Manifesto: Noun. A declaration of one's intentions.

Starting December first, I will keep a Christmas journal. In it, I will write something every
day to reflect on the holidays of my past, enjoy the holidays of the present and dream
about the holidays of my future. To some, this will be a stack of papers and trivial
scribbles, but not to me. I am taking back my Christmas, I am letting it be something I
relish and, most importantly, I am giving at least fifteen minutes every day to myself no
matter how crazy this season becomes. I hope you will share, encourage and understand
as I make something with my own hands, my own words and my own memories.

I may post some or all of my entries here. Other artists are doing this with me, and you can see their work here. Or you may
join us.


Above all: enjoy the season. I will.

Jennifer Childs
December 2006