December Daily - Day 3

Day 3 - We will not be in town for the holidays this year so I left my Christmas decorating to a minimum.  I still love the feeling of holiday decorations for the entire month of December, but I just didn't go all out this year like I usually do.  So, today I began capturing some of my 'Decking the Halls'!!!  

December Daily - Day 2

Here are my pages for December 2nd - Was a quiet day and lots of 'Christmas Movie' watching...

Not the best photos of my pages, can't seem to get the light in my scraproom just right.  Please enjoy!

...

this flap opens and I am listing some of my favorite Christmas movies from this year.  I haven't finished the list yet.

December Daily - Day 1

Well, I still cannot believe that December is already here.  I have been in shock all day.  We were out of town over the Thanksgiving holiday (that is when I usually put up our Christmas Tree) and work has been a bit crazy this past week, so I put up our Christmas Tree this morning.  We will be out of town for Christmas also, so I am not going overboard with our decorations this year but I do like to enjoy the whole month of December with lights, bright decorations and a touch of Christmas all throughout the house.

I wanted to capture on today's December Daily a visit with Santa Claus.  Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I was with two of our grandchildren and I wanted to take them to see Santa.   Brooklynn will be two in January and I was with her and her mama last year for her very 1st visit to Santa.  Well, now she has a little brother, Bryson, and I wanted to be with him also on his very first meeting with the big guy in red.  Bryson is now 8 months old and took to Santa right away.  Now that Brooklynn is older, she was a bit scared of him.  We coaxed and prodded to try to get her into his lap but to no avail.  So Santa, being the wonderful jolly ole man that he is, suggested that he go into his 'house' and that I could sit in his seat with the two children and get our photo taken in Santa's chair.  What a great idea.  Except that I really wanted 'him' in the photos.  Little did Brooklynn (or I) know, that once we were seated, Santa came back out and stood behind the chair so that he was in the pictures.  Brooklynn never even knew that he was there.

While I was paying for the photos, Brooklynn warmed up enough to Santa that she was waving to him and blowing him kisses.  When we went to leave, she even wanted to give him a kiss on the cheek.  She still didn't want to sit in him lap but she had made big strides.  Maybe next year.

Here are my December Daily - Day 1 pages

December Daily 2012

Well, I cannot believe that tomorrow is December 1st.  This year has flown by so fast that I hardly know the month anymore, much less the day.  Well, many weeks ago, I put the foundation pages together for my December Daily album for this Christmas.  This will be the 5th year that I have participated in documenting each day of December leading up to Christmas Day.  It quickly became one of my most favored holiday traditions each year.  Back in 2008 I stumbled upon Ali Edwards blog and when Nov/Dec came around and I read her blog posts about her upcoming Christmas project, I new I just had to join in. 

 I went with a smaller size album this year.  It is a 6 X 6 and I am using pattern paper packs (My Minds Eye: The Station and Teresa Collins': World Traveler).  This made it so simple to construct my base album as I didn't have a lot of paper cutting to do. Beware - this is a photo heavy blog post...so sit back, relax and enjoy...

Front of my 2012 December Daily Album

This will be my introductory page to set the tone for the entire upcoming holiday season

December 1st

December 2nd

December 3rd

closer view of Dec. 3rd - left side

closer view of Dec. 3rd - right side

December 4th

closer view of Dec. 4th - left side

closer view of Dec. 4th - right side

December 5th - I have a silver metal circle that will go around the number 5 on the ruler ribbon indicating the day

December 8th - We will be going for an overnight trip tonight celebrating our Anniversary (Dec. 11th) so I added an envelope which gives me more room to collect photos and epherma

the rest of Dec. 8th

December 9th - out of town on our anniversary trip - this little kraft paper envelope with card inside gives me more journalling room. 

closer look at the kraft paper envelope - currently it is attached by a paper clip, once I see how the page will go, I will permanently affix it to the page

December 10th

December 11th - our actual Anniversary

December 12th

December 13th - love these little glittery butterflies bacb-to-back as a tab for the page

December 14th

December 15th

December 16th - love using scrabble tiles for my projects (I hunt for these at yard sales to have the extra tiles to have on hand)

December 17th - this paper already had the #17 on the bottom right hand corner - I just used it the way it was

December 18th

December 19th

December 20th

December 21 - left side - I used a rub-on for the writing around the edges of this sheet.  It is the beginning of the story 'Twas the night before Christmas'.  I love how this turned out.

December 21st - right side

December 22nd

December 23rd

December 24th

2nd spread for Dec. 24th - We are having a large family Christmas this year and there will be lots to document from Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

December 25th - Christmas Day

2nd spread for December 25th

back cover of my album

It isn't all that thick right now but I do have 3 inch book rings to use as the album begins to get bigger.  

 Whether this is your first year doing the December Daily album or you have enjoyed this project before, make sure to really 'live' in the moment of this Holiday Season.  Take the pressure off of yourself that this album needs to be show-worthy.  Getting it documented and completed it far more important than having it ready for a photo shoot for some crafting magazine.

Enjoy the process and I wish you a very Merry Christmas!
Cherri

The Happy Couple...

Well, we are back from North Carolina, the wedding is behind us, all house guests are gone and our world seems to be getting back to normal.  (whatever normal may be)  We had an awesome 'wedding' weekend.  The wedding turned out to be their 'dream wedding' and that was our goal.  To give them everything that they would want their wedding to be.  It was a huge success.  It was beautiful.  It was so tender and love-filled.  It was perfect.  They are so happy and excited to be husband and wife.  It was also everything that we (my husband and I) wanted it to be for them.                                                                                                                                                         

The Happy Couple...Matthew & Allina

Just a few more shots from the day...

Me and my husband Mark and 5 our our 6 kiddos...(from left to right) Me, Brandon, Tiffany, Matt, Matthew, Ashley and Mark.




The entire Bridal Party...love this shot

 

A wedding is in our future...

It's been a while, but here I am.  We have had a lot going on lately but the most special and important of them all is the wedding of one of our children.  Matthew (one of our 6 kiddos) is getting married this weekend, Sept. 29th, 2012.  We are so excited.  This will be the first wedding/marriage for any of our children.  We will now carry the new titles of father-in-law and mother-in-law.  Wow, I haven't thought of myself as a mother-in-law before.  I have not had the typical 'mother-on-law' experience in my life.  I have an awesome mother-in-law so I plan to break that typical mold also.  I will be the most amazing mother-in-law to all of our children's future spouses.  Allina just to experience it first.  We are heading to North Carolina tomorrow to begin the wedding festivities.  We cannot wait for their very special day.  Welcome to our family Allina.  We love you.