JYC Dec 29 and 30!

Two more JYC pages to share today.

The 29th is a catch up day... every year I struggle with what to do! This year I had a plan but didn't get to it - in fact I fell behind. Which turned out to be good. Something happened on the thirtieth that I wanted to document, so I slipped the prompt of a year in review from the 30th back to the 29th.

The pics here are in order --
Jan 2011 - Oldest and me at Challenger Anniversary Dinner where he guarded the Challenger Flag.
Feb 2011 - Oldest, DH and Me at the Eagle Scout honor dinner for 2010
Mar 2011 - All of our 5 plus DH's brother, SIL and their two kids - tubing while they visited us on vacation!
Apr 2011- Oldest's official Eagle Court of Honor
May 2011 - Mother's Day
June 2011 - My girlfriends come to visit in Denver
July 2011 - Florida Vacation
Aug 2011 - Back to School
Sep 2011 - Court of Honor -- all three boys in uniform, with my parents
Oct 2011 - Halloween -- the Doctor, a Cyberman and an Apollo Astronaut (but NOT the Impossible Astronaut --  he would feel it necessary that I pointed that out because HE is a jock, not a geek like the rest of us. Got it. Wrestling Boy JOCK. Not Whovian geek. LOL)
Nov 2011 - Air Force Vs. Army Football Game
Dec 2011 - Christmas portrait

Journal reads: Looking back on 2011 I can see what an amazing year it has been for our family!

And the big news of the 30th?

 The Little Guy lost his first tooth!!!! VERY EXCITING!
Journal reads: Just a week ago [the Little Guy] was showing his loose tooth to Santa.* Today he lost it! His first tooth! The Tooth Fairy is Coming!

*This story will be further documented at a later date. The little guy and Santa discussed whether Santa or the Tooth Fairy would visit our house first, then Santa began to tell the Little Guy how he calls the Tooth Fairy 'the Molinator' Little Did Santa know that the kid he was talking to is a SANTA FREAK and takes the Santa Clause movies as historical fact. He began to tell him all about the movie while Santa claimed he had never seen said movies. HILARIOUS.

More Journal Your Christmas

In case you were wondering, Journal Your Christmas continues all the through the twelve days of Christmas and ends at Epiphany, January 6th. I've gone all the way through every year except the first year when I couldn't bring myself to write a final entry and bring it all to a close!


Dec 26th. Boxing Day really isn't a big thing in the U.S.

 

Today's topic was more of a what we did today.

Journal reads:

Asked what they wanted to do today, all three boys requested lunch at The Airplane Restaurant and playing at home.

Dec 27th -- the topic for the 27th is sleep and sleeping in... since I had very little to say on that topic, I decided to document the kiddos' Christmas jammies!

I was sucked in by the endless Hoodie Footie advertising. I bought a groupon for Pajamagrams intending to buy something for myself... but ended up getting Hoodie Footies for the younger boys (and they were SUPER DUPER SOFT!!!) I mentioned them to oldest who was sad to hear he was going to be getting regular old Old Navy jammies... So I set out on a mission. 

Journal reads:

Christmas pajamas are a relatively new tradition for our family -- begun when [the Little Guy] was a baby. When [Oldest] complained that he had no footie pajamas - I set out to find some.

Dec 28th -- the topic for today is Christmas indulgences. I made a little Christmas admission.

 Journal reads:

With the Christmas bustle past, the visitors off home, and the older boys off to share the holiday week with their dad, the vacation part of the Christmas vacation has arrived. We're enjoying our bounteous gifts -- playing games and watching movies, eating stocking chocolates, wearing cozy new lougewear, digging into the remaining treats. And I have committed my annual act of theivery -- pocketing the Barnes and Noble Gift Card that Uncle Bob sends for 'the family' and loading it onto my Nook for all sorts of reading.

Some more JYC!

23rd -- addressed a topic from earlier in the week that dealt with 'right now' in your house... I pulled out some leftover papers from last year's journal on this page so some of them aren't the ones mentioned in the opening post.

Journal reads:
"Today the train found itself speeding around the tree! It's almost Christmas!"

24th -- Christmas Eve!

Again the gold elements and the rub ons are not from the original group of papers I started with.. but they suited my desire for this page.
Journal reads:
Christmas Eve with all the kiddos - just the way it ought to be -- loud, exuberant and joyous!

25th - Christmas Day
My only two pager so far this year! Couldn't resist all the pics!!!

I used the Big Huge Labs Flickr tool to make the photo collage, super quick and easy!

Left side -- Journal reads:
Christmas Morning [Middle Child] and [the Little Guy] were up entirely too early*! We held them off for a while before the present opening craziness commenced.
Right side -journal reads:
Christmas Evening we celebrated with a simple and casual dinner begun with Christmas crackers and eaten with silly paper crowns on all of our heads.

* 3:40 AM. Oh how I wish I were kidding.

I'm late, I'm late... but My Christmas Journal continues!

Today's topic dealt with Christmas surprises... I never plan ahead for this page -- I just let whatever surprise the day brings find its way to the page.

For the 20th, the surprise was waking up to a blanket of snow!

Journal reads:

While we were expecting a little snow, we got a lot! The boys had a ball out playing!

For the 21st I went off topic -- about a week ago we had a topic about visitors and visiting. On the 21st, we had some visitors! (actually they arrived on the 20th)

Journal reads:
[Cousins] came to spend a couple of days with us -- today we visited Santa in Old Colorado City, went sledding at Cottonwood Creek, and headed to Electric Safari at the zoo, where the kids visited with Santa again. As we were leaving the zoo the snow really picked up. By the time we got home I couldn't get the van up the driveway and ended up with it stuck on the corner in the snow. 

22nd -- another off topic day.

Journal reads:
With a ton of snow on the ground, today was the perfect day for making an entire gingerbread village with help from [cousins]. Everyone made a little house.

More tomorrow!

Journal Your Christmas -- Dec 18 and 19

Dec 18th -- the topic today was holiday menus... I decided to include a few recipes...

Journal reads: "Miss Paula is my Secret!
My go-to special occasion recipes almost all come from Paula Deen! Oh so good!"
*In the pocket are four of our favorites recipes.

Dec 19th -- the topic for today was letters to Santa.

Journal reads:
Dear Santa- Our whole family is looking forward to your upcoming visit. We've hung our stockings, the boys have sent you letters via the wii. We've all been very good this year. The boys have been working hard to stay on the Nice List. We'll leave a snack for you and the reindeer and watch for you on the NORAD Santa tracker!
With Love,
M

My favorite thing on this page is the little photo which reads "merry cristmas[sic] and happy new year" and was written by my six year old in his teacher's Christmas card.

Journal Your Christmas -- 15 -17

Journal Your Christmas - the Journey continues!
Dec 15th

Journal reads: "Every year I get the boys teachers some kind of gift card for food. This year I also added a cute lunch bag and a loaf of pumpkin bread. [Middle child] and [Little Guy] added a handmade ornament to their bags. [Little Guy] made a beaded wreath and [Middle Child] sewed this adorable felt mouse."

Dec 16th

 Journal reads: "Tonight we went to the V7 skating party at the World Arena! [Oldest] helped [Little Guy] while [Middle Child] sped around the rink."

Dec. 17

 

Journal Reads : "Tonight we attended the amazing drive-through light display at First Nazarene. [Little Guy] was amazed that all the volunteers greeted him by name*. It was fantastic!"

*When we arrived the posted the children's names on the driver side door of our car so Santa and the other volunteers could call them by name*

Journal Your Christmas : An update!

I have been working on my Christmas Journal -- falling behind here and there and catching up later.
But I've got some pages to show you - right here!
For the last couple of years I've been doing kind of a mix of Journal Your Christmas and a "December Daily" style of album -- documenting a lot of the wonderful ideas in Shimelle's prompts and some of our daily-goings-on.

Dec 12th was my work Christmas lunch.

Journal reads: "A mini loaf of white choco-pumpkin bread was a go-to gift for this year.These were made for my MMO coworkers at our Christmas lunch today at Salsa Brava!"

Dec 13th
We decorated our tree on the evening of the 12th -- so on the 13th I went ahead and used a tree-trimming pic on my page

Journal reads: "Too Tall
We went for a bigger tree this year - so big that [oldest - who is over 6' tall] had to get a stepstool to put the star on top!"

Dec 14th
One of Shimelle's annual topics is gratitude. I decided to go with that today even though that prompt hadn't come yet.

Journal reads : "I am so thankful that we have had such a wonderful year together and I am so thankful for our family!"

Simple, obvious. but true.

More tomorrow!

WOOHOO! I am the WINNER!

Yesterday I got an e-mail from Kelly over at Everyday Childhood  to inform me that I've won a T-mobile My Touch Phone!!!!

It's so fancy! Though, I've won some fabulous prizes online -- this is a pretty big and awesome one!!

I am not currently a SmartPhone girl - in fact I'm a bottom-of-the-line Stupid Phone girl. Seriously. That thing doesn't even work with my Bluetooth! About a year and a half ago -- I decided to upgrade my phone, got a brand new phone... and dropped it in a kiddie pool. OOPS! So I had to replace my brand new phone and I got a cheapy track phone. It doesn't even have a silent setting. It's sad. LOL

So I'm super excited (although I think DH is less excited to be paying for a data plan LOL)

Thank you, Kelly!

More Journal Your Christmas!

Here's a few more pages from 2011's Christmas Journal -- catching us up to today!

Dec 9.
Technically Christmas wrap is the topic for the tenth but I did a bunch of wrapping on the 9th, so that was my topic for that day. After 5 years - you know what prompts in general are coming and doing them out of order is not so big a deal!

Journal reads "I had a little one-woman wrapping party today! Look at all those wrapped gifts!"

Dec 10.
The topic for the ninth dealt with family traditions, I swapped that over to the tenth... Yes, there will be a music-related prompt at some future time... but this was my entry for the 10th

Journal reads "My love of Christmas music is well known at any time of year. A few years back [Oldest] made me promise not to listen in the the car until it's on the Radio." The photo is the SiriusXM Holiday channel line-up.

Dec. 11
Today's topic dealt with trees and for once, I stayed on topic!

Journal reads "The tree has been up a few days. I finally got the lights on today. Ornaments tomorrow!"

I'll be back tomorrow with the entry for today!

Journal your christmas days 5-8

I am going to get my Journal Your Christmas pages caught up on my blog! I swear!
Tomorrow I'll post 9. 10. 11. and 12 And VOILA! I'll be caught up!

Dec 5

The prompt for a magic, fantasy, dream Christmas was technically for the 4th... but I knew what I wanted to do, so I did it on the 5th. Journal reads: "I love Christmas! I love Disney! So I suppose it's not too surprising that I have a Disney Christmas Fantasy! I long to see the decked out Walt Disney World Resorts, Disneyland's Haunted Mansion Holiday, Snow on Main Street USA during the Christmas parade, EPCOT's Candlelight Vigil, but for now... I'll watch specials and parades on TV and dream Disney Dreams."

Dec 6th

There is an annual prompt that deals with Sights of TODAY. That prompt actually came on the 8th but here's my page, from the 6th. Journal reads "While the kids were in school I slipped into their rooms and (mostly ignoring the varied states of cleanliness in each room) set up a small tree for each of them. [Oldest] got a Bronco tree while [Middle Child] and [Little Guy] each got Tinsel. My favorite thing was each of their excited reactions. [Little Guy] was most excited about his Nativity!"

Dec. 7

The annual "To Do List" prompt. Journal reads "Every year at this time some voice in my head swears that I should be further in my holiday preparations, that I am ALWAYS more prepared than I now find myself, but a quick review of To Do Lists in past Christmas Journals proclaims that the Voice is a BIG FAT LIAR! 
*Decorate Tree
*Outdoor Lights
*Handmade Gifts
*Teacher Gifts
*Wrap Up Shopping
*Prep for Company
*Gingerbread Village
*BAKE!
*Zoo Lights
*Toys for Tots"

Dec. 8

Way back on the third, we had a prompt about Christmas cards... At that point I had THREE finished. On the 8th I spent some time working on cards and got more finished! Journal reads "So far I've finished fifty cards for this year. Not as many as years past but I love them!"

Journal Your Christmas 2011

I apologize that I've fallen so behind in blogging (and everything else!) the last little bit! Things around here have been hectic! Wrestling season has begun (Oldest won his first match by pin! Woohoo!)! Middle child and I had some Christmas concerts to prepare for and perform in at our new church (which was time consuming but AMAZING!!!)Plus all the usual Scouts, Explorers, Karate, etc... It's been a little crazy!

But here I am and December has begun which in my house means -- Journal Your Christmas with Shimelle! This is my fifth year participating in this wonderful experience and I can't say enough good things about how it makes me feel about my holidays!

So here's my first few pages, more to come soon until I get caught up on the blog! My whole album will be on Kraft using one of a few Chirstmas lines all of which have sort of a vintagey feel and a cream undertone -- including BoBunny Blitzen, Cosmo Cricket: Dear Mr. Claus, Reminisce: Dear Santa, Reminisce: A Christmas Story and BoBunny:Snowfall. The Date stamps are all from Close to My Heart  - the set is called "On This Day".

Dec 1st

Journal Your Christmas always begins with the "Manifesto" - the statement of intentions for the album. In past years (2010, 2009, 2008, 2007) I've added a lot more journalling to this page but this year, I felt that this was enough. : "Document the Joy. Live the Memories. Share the Love."

Dec 2nd

Today's topic was weather -- Journal reads: " This morning we woke to a world of frost. It was stunningly beautiful. All the harsh lines and bared trees trimmed in shimmering white. The view took my breath away and the kids talked of 'a visit from Jack Frost'. "

Dec. 3rd.

Instead of addressing the recommended topic, I went with a glimpse at our previous evening.
Journal reads " Last night we attended the Advent Workshop at V7. The kids made ornaments, a Jesse tree and [Oldest] made our Advent wreath."

Dec. 4th

The topic is our Christmas concert on Dec 3 &4th. The photo is me and Middle Child. Journal reads "Weeks of  practice leading up to two nights of Amazing Christmas Music! It as such a blessing to take part in this event where we raised over $5200 and 68 boxes of food for the Needy! Repeat the Sounding Joy!!"

See... Christmas IS COMING at my house, just slowly!!