December Daily - days 13-31

Today I finished up my December Daily album.  I cannot even say how much I have enjoyed this album.  It is probably one of my favorite craft projects I have ever done.  Not just because it is super cute (because it is), but because I made a real effort every day of December to enjoy and capture a holiday moment.  I know this is a book we will look back on many times, I can't wait to do it again next year!!

Without further adieu (hehe), here is the rest of my album:




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Day 13 - I asked everyone in our family to name their favorite Christmas movie, song and treat.  On the right is the invitation to our Relief Society Christmas dinner which I attended that night. 



Day 14 - lunch with the girls!

Day 15 - the nativity scene my mom gave me years ago.  On the right is a picture of the faculty in my department. 

Day 16 - tells about our little faculty party. 

Day 17 - last minute shopping
Day 18 - one of my favorite December traditions is Winter Garden Aglow

Day 19 - the 2nd annual Christmas party at Leslie's!  (Using the shuffle feature on my Canon Selphy printer.  Me + Canon Selphy printer = love)

Day 20 - I am club advisor and at Christmas our club adopts a family and provides Christmas for them.  This is always a very touching part of my holiday, I was glad to record it.



 



Days 21, 22, & 23 - the kids and I took a pre-Christmas trip to Gramma and Grampa's house.  Such fun!!





Day 24 - we visited Grandma and Grandpa on Christmas Eve Day.  I also talked about some of our traditions.

Day 25 - I loved the pages about Christmas!  I added in quite a few extra pages.  I put in a lot of pictures and also had each of us write a journaling card about Christmas.  I included Christmas cards that Mylie made as well. 

Day 26 - we went to see Sherlock Holmes with Grandpa while the kids stayed with Grandma.

Days 27, 28, 29 & 30 - it was fun to capture the laid back days of Christmas break. 

Day 31 - New Year's Eve was such fun.  We went to the U of I - BSU basketball game with both my parents and Jeff's parents.  My parents spent the rest of the day with us.  We were delighted that they would travel over to spend the day with us. 

The End!  - I added in an extra page to list some other highlights from December, things that might not have otherwise been mentioned.  For example, the mistletoe, Mylie's new haircut and other things. 

December Daily - days 7-11

Although I probably should have been grading papers tonight, instead I worked on getting caught up on my December daily album.  I have to say, I am having SO much fun with this album and am just tickled with how it is turning out.  I know that we will enjoy looking back on this every year. 

I like that I made it simple.  Each page is only 4x8 and I only have 1 page for each day (though I can add more if needed).  If I don't have a picture for that day, it is easy to just tell a story and the pages don't look bare. 

I didn't take picture for either of these days, but still love the way they turned out.  On the 7th I talk about how I love doing crafts for Christmas (obviously).  If you lift up my journaling card, I had Mylie write about how she likes Christmas crafts.  I know I will have having her handwriting in here. 

On the 8th I just googled and printed the DVD cover from our Christmas movie collection.  Watching Christmas movies is a huge part of our Christmas traditions.

For the 9th I talk about secret Santas at work.  It has been many years since I have been involved in secret Santa at work and I am having so much fun!  Even though that page is really simple, I really like it. 

For the 10th, I put an insert in.  I copy and pasted an entry from our family blog where I talked about how decorating the tree always makes me think about my Grandma and how I was very emotional about it this year.  It also talks about some of the other events we did on Saturday. 

For the 11th, google was my friend again - this time for White Christmas.  This is a movie tradition that Jeff brought.  I had him write about it. 

On the 12th the kids had their Christmas program.  The background paper I used for these days is so cute, but really busy.  I tried to balance it out - hopefully it worked.

I sound like a broken record, but I just love this album!!  I am enjoying recording some things that I don't know if I otherwise would.

December Daily - days 5 & 6

I'm having lots of fun with this project - here are days 5 and 6:

I made a little insert between the pages for these days.  On this side I have the recipe for the cookies we made. 

And here I have a picture of the inside of the kid's letters to Santa.  I initially printed it small, but it was hard to read. 

I am so glad I went with the BIG binder rings, this is going to be one full book by the time we are done.  :)

December Daily

This year I decided that I would do a December Daily album.  The purpose of this album is to capture ALL the moments in December.  Just like everyone else, it is a busy month for us and it is easy to get caught up in the busyness and not focus on all the wonder of  Christmastime. 

I thought long and hard about what I wanted this album to look like.  I knew that I wanted to make it ahead of time so it would be easy to stay caught up.  I am printing my pictures at home, so I am able to put each page together at the end of the day. 

Drumroll please ... here is my December Daily album!

I love this cover.  To the extent that I am nerd and after I finally finished it (of course well into the AM hours), I took a picture of it on my phone so I could look at it in the night if I wanted to.  The banner, the buttons, and the snow drifts are all sprayed with Studio Calico's Mr. Huey Shine, which honestly, may be one of my new favorite scrapbook supplies!  Buttons are one of my other favorite supplies, so I thought it was fitting to make the tree out of buttons.  I used glossy accents on the star to make it sparkly. 

The back cover got some Mr. Huey Shine as well.  It is Christmas after all!

This is the inside cover.  I mixed a lot of different papers/brands in the book, but I really like the way it turned out and think it flows well.

Here are days 1-4.

The activities I talked about in days 1 and 2 were the activities from our advent calendar.  I premade a bunch of journaling cards so they are ready to grab and write at the end of the day. 

Not every day needs a picture.  On the 3rd, the kids went to Grandma and Grandpa's house so Jeff and I could finish our Christmas shopping.  I just talked about how fun it was for Jeff and I to have an afternoon together. 

So there you have it so far!  I plan to keep my blog updated with my progress on the album throughout the month.