For a number of reasons, I’ve decided to call it good enough: I’m finished with my Christmas journal. Some of the ending prompts were leaving me a little cold, and I woke up ready to be done with this project. The decorations got put away yesterday, and I don’t want this project hanging around waiting to be finished for weeks, when I ought to be moving on. I had a moment’s guilt for not finishing all the way to the end of the entire 37 prompts, but it was only a moment. It’s my journal, it can be whatever I want it to be.
So: I did two more layouts, rearranged some of the date tags on the pages I did yesterday, printed out and punched the last pages, and am calling it good.
First up is a retrospective of our sightseeing in New York City.
The words around the edge read: Statue of Liberty’s nose * Fogged up New York City Skyline * Not as big as expected, but she is still quite impressive * Madison Square Garden (a Godzilla Landmark) * Mood Fabrics — Wow! * Empire State Building (another Godzilla landmark) * Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree * Penny Harvest (a million dollars in pennies!) * Colin, watching the ice skaters * Will and Dad skating in Central Park * Oh, and there’s Joe, too!
Journaling my Christmas has been a fun experience. It’s brought back fond memories of the past, given me the opportunity to learn a little bit about how to scrapbook using my computer, and best of all: given me a very special reminder of this year’s Christmas experiences.
I’ve tried to think about anything in particular that I want to remember for next year. The main thing is that I do NOT (I repeat, DO NOT) need to buy wrapping paper next year. There is MORE than enough Christmas paper in the box to last for several seasons.
There is more I could say about the holidays, but I feel like it is time to be done with this project. I look forward to other journal and scrapbooking adventures in the coming year, and look forward to doing this all over again next year.
I thought about trying to make notes about what I might do differently next time, but honestly: too much will change between now and then, that I can’t even begin to predict what kind of an artistic challenge I might be looking for when Christmas comes around again.
The cover itself was done several weeks ago. The album is made out of 2 pieces of acrylic. I found the metal tags at Hobby Lobby — they were self-adhesive. Those are adhered on the outside of the acrylic, and I fussed around with the design of the cover page so that the tags would fit over top of the center strip and look nice. The pages are all held together with 4 metal locking rings.
I had also purchased some ribbon to maybe tie on the rings for further embellishment, but in case you haven’t been able to figure out: that doesn’t really suit my style. My style seems to tend more toward the restrained, simple and uncluttered.
So how is it that my artistic style is uncluttered, but my office and studio are……disaster areas?
There you have it.
What’s next?
Suzanne
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I really was goign to go to bed, but my Christmas journal kept calling to me, and since these pages were done and I was still up, I thought I might as well go ahead and post them. I actually whipped out 3 pages this evening!
For those of you keeping track, yes, I’m jumping around and oign out of order now. I wrote some junk for the 26th, but it was kind of rambly and pointless, and I don’t know what I’m going to do about that particular day. I need to see if my brother-in-law took any pictures that day, as the ones I took were worthless.
Here’s the 26th. The prompt was to talk about changes in sleep habits over the holidays.
I bought lots of new jammies this year. I got matching jammies for Will, Joe, Dylan
and Colin. Sofia got something pretty instead. The picture above shows that the 4 big
kids’ jammies were all plenty big. Colin’s were way too big for him, but he got lots of
new jammies from his Mommy.
Mark got new sleep pants and Gramma Reed got flannel jammies with bunny rabbits
on them. I should have bought some new jammies for myself, too, I guess.
I’m pretty spoiled with boys who like to sleep in as much as I do. It makes it hard to
get up for school some days, but when we can sleep in, we do.
Even being at Debra’s house, sleeping on air mattresses in the middle of the family
room, we all managed some nice late mornings. Colin is an early riser, but luckily he
either went back to sleep or watched TV and let us snooze.
The prompt for the 28th was to talk about things that are special to the season, to document something in particular that only comes out once a year. I thought this would be a good place to journal about our Christmas quilts! (edited: I rearranged, and this one is now called dated the 27th)
2007 was the year of the finished Christmas quilt. I finally finished the
block of the month Christmas quilt that I started in 2000. It’s been on our bed
since December 1st!
The Star Baby quilt was a new project this year. I fell in love with the angel
and reindeer fabric, it reminded me of my reindeer ornament. I usually don’t
like retro very much, but this fabric really tripped my trigger. It was fun to make
and even though it doesn’t match the red couch, it’ll be out again in future years.
I started Snowman Rows several years ago. I quilted it in September and it is now
bound and being used. It still needs buttons on the vests. I’m hoping to get that
done this winter. I figure it’ll stay out, since it isn’t specifically a Christmas quilt.
Starstruck is supposed to be a Christmas quilt (the back is made up of a bunch
of different Christmas prints). We hung it on the wall last Christmas, and it
looked so good against our yellow walls that it is been there ever since. We have
talked about rotating it and putting something different up, but it’s quite an
operation and just hasn’t gotten done yet.
I asked everyone what they would pick as their favorite moment of the Christmas season, and it was unanimous. Everyone picked the opening of the boys’ Nintendo Wii as their favorite. I think the grins tell the whole story.
And now. I’m actually going to go to bed. Honest.
S
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Most of the rest of my journal pages are going to be about the text — I wrote a lot when I was at my sister’s! When I copied and pasted the text, I found some typos. I’ve fixed my original, but the image below does have some misspellings. Joe was looking through the printed journal one day and found at least one typo that I missed. I should have him and Will check the whole thing for me!
Christmas Morning — not having our luggage seemed to put a damper on all of our moods. I have discovered that we didn’t
manage to take a single picture in the morning. Colin was up early, but everyone else slept in. We opened our stockings, and the
presents from Santa and the Ellsworths. Colin opened “Rocket” just about first thing, and after that he wasn’t interested in any-
thing else. He played with it and the four “guys” for hours! He did manage to help unwrap the rest of his gifts, but after care-
fully pulling the paper off and handing it to his Dad a piece at a time (Here you go!) he went right back to Rocket.
The boys especially loved the remote control helicopters that Santa brought, and buzzed those around our heads for most
of the day.
Debra made Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake and it was quite yummy. Most of us ended up taking naps while we continued to wait
for our luggage — which finally arrived at 12:30. What a relief it was to shower and have our belongings. We didn’t even bother
wrapping our gifts at that point. We just handed them out as we opened suitcases and started digging through them.
We managed to draw Colin’s attention from Rocket for a little while — we had gotten him a toy John Deere Backhoe Loader,
which turned out to be the same exact model as the real one that he could see out his window at the construction site next to
the condo.
The boys tried to go to Liberty State Park and play outside, but it was colder down by the water than we had thought it was,
so they pretty much turned around and came right back. Mark had not been feeling well in the morning, and by the afternoon
he was quite sick, running a fever and feeling generally miserable. He ending up sleeping a lot.
Debra made a pot of mashed potatoes to go with the Honey Ham for supper — it was quite yummy.
Except for the helicopters, it was a very subdued day.
Sunday the 23rd was “Christmas Day” at our house — the boys got a Nintendo Wii from Santa. They started playing at 10 AM and
quit at 5:30 PM. No lunch, no drinks, and only a few quick potty breaks. They were VERY crabby afterwards, and we were pretty
well convinced that their behavior afterwards was good evidence that too much video game time rots your brain.
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The 20th says:
Just a few weeks ago, I wouldn’t have believed that I would have a picture of my boys with their Smeigh cousins to put in my Christmas Journal. David’s phone call telling us that he and his family were coming — all the way from Tunisia! — to spend a few days at our house while they were in the States was a huge Surprise. We had an awesome visit, and were so sad to see them leave. Joe wants to go visit them in Tunisia next year.
The prompt for the 21st was to take a picture of your house right NOW — was it ready for the holidays?? Was it a mess? Well, the pictures I managed to take that day all had to do with the family that was filling up my house, so that’s what I decided to go with for the day’s entry.
If you are interested in the credits for the digital elements, you can click on the picture(s), which will take you to Flickr, where you can view the entries larger, read the credits, and see past entries as well.
And with that, I really am signing off. We were supposed to have visitors today, but with the weather, that didn’t work out: which meant some unexpected time today to get a few of my journal entries caught up. After this, though, I’ll be taking notes and pictures, but not doing the actual entires until my return.
TTFN-
Suzanne
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This is normally a Christmas Eve thing, but since my niece and nephew won’t be here then, we decided to give the kids their jammies tonight. They were playing Mouse Trap, and I tried to get some pictures, but mostly what I got were big blurs of silliness.
This one turned out pretty well:
The jammies are all humongous on the kids, but that seems to be part of the tradition: Mom (aka Aunt Suzy) buys them really big, so they fit for a long time….the matching set I got for my 2 year old nephew are going to be really huge on him….oh well, at least they are drawstring waist…
The kids got to stay home this afternoon/evening with my husband who fed them grilled cheese sandwiches and entertained them. My brother, his wife, my mom, and I all went out for supper and some last minute Christmas shopping. Lest you feel sorry for my husband, he just got back this afternoon from a trip to Kansas City and was wiped out. Staying home, even if it meant corralling the 4 kids, was much more appealing to him. Besides, the 4 kids are getting along so well, I don’t think he had to do much to keep them entertained.
The kids are having a sleepover tonight, 2 kids in each bedroom. They didn’t stay awake and giggle as long as I was expecting. I think they were tired.
More fun tomorrow, then they will head for their next stop on Saturday (weather-permitting….stay away winter storm….)
I’m running a day behind on my Christmas Journal, and the entry for the 19th isn’t technically finished:
I’ve asked my boys to write letters (Will has done so, and a copy of his is in the envelope). I also asked my niece and nephew if they would like to contribute a letter. Sofia created the love note that you see here. I still need to write my letter….and to convince Joe to write his….
Phew. All that shopping wore me out. I ought to have hit the sack ages ago.
TTFN-
Suzanne
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First, I must report that my brother and his family did arrive safely right at supper time last night. We are having a lovely visit: the 4 cousins seem to have bonded pretty well, and the adults are having a nice time visiting and catching up. They went to visit Great-Grandma Humphrey today (plus my aunt and cousin and her baby). I didn’t get to go because I had to go to school for the Holiday Music Program. It was nice, but sitting on a bleacher for 1.5 hours is a killer.
The prompt on the 17th was “I saw this and thought of you” — to journal about perfect gifts, either that you’ve given or received. I really struggled with what I was going to say, but I’m happy with how it turned out.
The page about food took me ages longer than it should have because Photoshop crashed on me last night and I had NOT saved in awhile. So, I gave up and went to bed. It turned out OK, but not terrific. I’m trying to remember that I don’t have to knock every single page out of the park — it’s supposed to be a learning experience, but it’s also supposed to be about reflecting and not creating amazing works of “art” every day.
I think you can probably read the text of the first OK, the journaling on the food page reads:
The only food that our family “requires” for Christmas is Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake. I have fond memories
of our Christmas Brunches at the Johnsons. The only other food I remember from those events was the custom
omelettes Dr. Johnson made.
Depending on the year, and whether or not we are in Iowa, we host Christmas Dinner for my Mom’s extended
family. In the past this meal has been a traditional turkey dinner with all of the fixings. Last year, though, we did
something different: I made several batches of pizza dough, bought lots of pizza toppings, and let everyone make their
own personal pizza. It was a lot of fun, and we’ll be sure to do it again!
With David and his family here, we are planning on a nice meal of some sort on Friday: I don’t know what that
will be, but I suspect it might be turkey, potatoes, green bean casserole, and other yummy foods like that.
We usually get together for a nice meal with my husband’s family at some point during the month. My mother-in-
law is a wonderful cook, and even though she has decided to stop doing the turkey meal (which always requires so
much last minute work), we always eat well at her house. This year’s meal was a momentous occasion: Grandma E.
decided that the 4 grandkids were old enough to use the fancy dishes and real glasses!
We’ll be at my sister’s for Christmas Day, and I don’t know what she has planned for Christmas Dinner. She is
8 months pregnant and has a toddler. None of us will complain if she decides that we will be having a Traditional
Pizza Meal rather than something requiring significant amounts of cooking.
************
Today’s prompt: write a letter to Santa. I got Will to write his, I need to twist Joe’s arm to write one as well. I can’t decide if my letter is going to be serious (i.e. Peace on Earth, Goodwill to Man), greedy (i.e. a list of “things”) or wishful thinking (i.e. an extra hour or 2 a day). I suppose that Katie should write one as well, although I don’t know what she would ask for, as her life is pretty perfect the way it is.
TTFN-
Suzanne
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The little tag says “I’m a lucky girl, with a lot to be very thankful for.”
It is not the best picture of my husband, but I do not have very many pictures of him. If I take a better one of him sometime soon, I’ll replace it.
The lyrics along the side are from the song “Thankful,” which is on the new Josh Groban Christmas CD.
I’ve been helping my mom getting ready for her house guests. When I was at her house on Saturday she had out some Christmas ornaments and I snagged this one to bring home to my tree:
Cute, right? Cross-stitched by me when I was….7 years old. Mom would have been the one to add the lace, backing, and hanger.
Except look:
It has never been stitched by hand to close it up.
The sad thing is that I hung it on the tree in order to take the pictures, and I suspect that it will stay there until it gets taken off the tree, packed away…and remain unfinished until I pull it out of the box next year. Or maybe I’ll surprise everyone and just go do it, since it’ll take, what, all of about 5 minutes???
xxoo-
suzanne
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If you click the pictures, you’ll be taken to Flickr where you can see the credits for the pages. I’ve just realized that my text for Day 15 is running a little crooked (I had it crooked, and then straightened it back out, but obviously didn’t get it completely straight….)
I’m still feeling pretty lousy this morning, but: I do have the first dose of antibiotics in me, as well as some Nasonex, so hopefully it won’t take long before the pressure in my head is relieved.
And I’m now ready to be a little more grateful and a little less irritated….
TTFN-
Suzanne
Day 14 Text:
One of the most important parts of Christmas to me is the music. It would almost be easier for me to pick the songs I don’t like, rather than trying to name one or even 10 of my favorites. I love them all for different reasons. Many times, it’s the one I’m listening to right now that is my favorite. It’s been several years since I’ve sung at church, but when I did, I usually picked Gesu Bambino or O Holy Night.
This year I’m playing for the Methodist Church choir, which also means playing for 2 services in December. I’m finding that this is primarily going to be a Jim Brickman year — as the songs that seem to want to be played are from the new book of his Christmas music that I purchased earlier this year.
My new favorite Christmas CD this year is Josh Groban’s “Noel.” I could listen to him sing all day long.
Day 15 Text:
This year we will both HAVE visitors and BE visitors. When I wrote about my perfect Christmas, I
had no idea that my brother and his family might come to Iowa for a visit! Needless to say,
we are all quite excited! They will be sleeping at my Mom’s house, but they will spend plenty of time
over at our house, too. We have a lot to pack into their 3 days of visit!
Next week we’ll be headed to my sister’s for a week. We’ll get there on Christmas Eve — I’m looking
forward to enjoying Christmas with my 2 year old nephew. He is just starting to “get” the magic
of Christmas, and the addition of having his big cousins to play with ought to be quite fun.
We have lots of things planned for our visit to New York City — the boys are quite excited! At the
top of the list are visits to the Statue of Liberty, Ground Zero, the Empire State Building, Times Square,
and Rockefeller Center to see the tree.
Our biggest wish in the 2 weeks to come is for good weather so that all of our traveling will be safe
and without delay.
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Now I’m only going to be one day behind. Hopefully this weekend I can get caught back up, before the craziness of next week descends upon us. (It’s a good kind of crazy, but crazy nonetheless…)
We are headed to the movie theater to see Beowulf tonight.
TTFN-
Suzanne
Text reads:
Twin boys means gifts that are (a) the same (b) the same but different or (c) equivalent. Since so many are option (a) — it only makes sense for those to be opened at the same time. Whether it is Christmas morning at home, or we are with Grandparents or other relatives, we usually take turns opening packages, starting with the kids. I remember childhood Christmas morning as being a free-for-all, but my Mom says that we did take turns. Because we lived far from family, we had piles of gifts to open on Christmas morning — many had arrived in the mail. Now we live close to relatives, so we “have Christmas” with lots of different people, opening gifts at many different times throughout the month.
Credits:
Erica Hite — A Joyful Season kit
Font — Joyful Juliana, Batik Regular
Designs by Laura — Custom fill chipboard alpha — simple
Syndee Nuckles — Instant Photo template
Weeds and Wildflowers — A Wildflower Holiday kit
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The prompt was Christmas Past — to think and record more memories (there was more to it than that, Shimelle had a number of ideas and directions this could go). Based on the recent Santa related events, I decided this was the most appropriate thing for me to think about/document for this year.
The picture is from their first Christmas. They were so sweet. I think that’s about the only picture we got of them with Santa. They’ve never been interested in sitting on his lap and telling him what they want.
Credits:
Erica Hite — A Joyful Season kit
Font — Susie’s Hand, Batik Regular
Designs by Laura — Custom fill chipboard alpha — simple
Cheryl Barber — Glass Styles from scrapgirls.com
Thao Cosgrove — Pen and Ink Transparency
Kimb’s designs — Christmas Around the World kit
Lisa Whitney — Believe kit
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