So Very, Merry & White Christmas

We had such a beautiful White Christmas here in Missouri.  It snowed, off and on, all day on Christmas Eve. All total I think we got about 5 inches or so.  It was so picture perfect.

Emily went sledding with her friend in the afternoon and then we, my Dad and I,  helped her build snow people.

My Dad and Felicia, my step-mom, arrived the Wednesday before Christmas and spent the holiday with us.  We loved having them here for a good relaxing visit.

We did take a little trip to Kansas City with them to shop and eat at the Country Club Plaza.  We love that area of KC and it's so beautifully festive with holiday lights during the Christmas season.  We had dinner at our favorite place, Buca di Beppo and had made reservations to sit at the kitchen table.  It's  fun to watch the action in the kitchen, see all the delectable dishes on the way out and greet people as they walk through the kitchen.

On Christmas Eve we baked and decorated sugar cookies. (My Dad took photos of the cookie action, but I can't get my Raw program to work right now.)

And then the children obliged me with the annual photo in front of the tree. I love how they didn't even really balk, they know it's just something we do.

Tucker had either a tail or head in the way for half of the photos, so we got him to sit too.  He obviously didn't want to be left out.

Soon afterward, they headed off to bed and I got busy wrapping the last of the gifts.  (I'm sure I'm not the only mom who ends up wrapping into the wee hours on Christmas Eve, am I?)  I was thankful that Emily had helped me wrap a good number of presents earlier in the week and got to bed earlier than previous years.

We began stirring Christmas morning before 8 am.  I always love the photo the scene before the kids come down to open presents.  So calm and beautiful. Miles and Emily were hanging out in Miles' room before we called them downstairs, it really warmed my heart to find them waiting together.

(Notice the new mantle set up I spoke of a while back and never got around to sharing. If you look back to Halloween you'll notice the clock replaces the massive art I had.  A big thanks to my handy neighbor who fixed this old clock we've had sitting in the garage for the last 3.5 years.)

Santa and the grandparents were very good to Miles and Emily.  I believe their "wish lists" were fulfilled and they felt very blessed.

As you can see, from the snow board behind Emily, Santa was prepared for a White Christmas!  Did that work out perfectly or what?

I never really intended to take such an extended holiday from the ole blog this Christmas.  Time just slipped away and then I just wanted to enjoy the time with family and friends.

Leading up to Christmas was very busy, as I'm sure most of us can say.  But each year I make several gifts for family members and each year I fail to remember how much time it takes to create these gifts. 

The grandparents each receive a customized calendar with photos featuring our kids, niece and nephews.  My mother reminds me each year how much she loves her calendar, so every year I try to top the year before.  (No pressure there, Mom, lol)  They have pretty much become mini digital scrapbook pages.

Here's a peek at a few of the pages. (I do two different sizes and 3 personalized versions.)

This is the cover for the wall calendar I have made at Shutterfly. I had a great deal of fun with this one.  I shadowed/overlayed the butterflies images in the background and picked colors that would coordinate with my MIL's decor (who adores butterflies).

I try and collect digital elements all year long, but I did decide to purchase a few kits from 2peas since the calendar date templates I used to use were no longer available and I had to make my own. This is one of my favorite pages using "That was yesterday kit" from Michelle Underwood.

Below is the desk calendar version of the same month, June, I made for my Mom, Dad and Richard.  As you can see, the proportions are very different, so it takes a good bit of maneuvering to try and use the same layout. (And many of the photos have to be swapped out for the proper relatives.)

One thing I did differently this year, is try and repeat a few small elements on each page, like the ruled paper, staples and stitching. Kind just as a little challenge for me, but I was hoping it also made the pages a little more coherent.

For the December page, I used some of the same elements I used in our Christmas card this year.

 

I was really happy with the results and I think they were too! Digital scrapbooking is just as rewarding, but I'm totally convinced it isn't necessarily faster.

Looking forward to the New Year.  Getting back on track to eating clean and healthy, de-cluttering my office, and hopefully carving out some time to scrapbook next week!

Catch up

I find myself always trying to play catch up with all the things I want to accomplish this season.  The blog being one of them. Each day the thought, "oh, I've got to post on my blog today," rings in my ears.

I still need to share my cousin's wedding photos.  So indulge me as I share at least a few.  It was a beautiful, very traditional wedding.  They were married in the church where I went to Catholic school for 4th through 6th grade. (I was sitting pretty much behind one of the columns in the church during the ceremony and they look exactly the same as they did back then. lol)

Mallory was beautiful and so was my Aunt Hope.

It was good to see so many of my relatives at the reception.

I wish we could have stayed at the reception longer,  but we needed to cover a lot of miles before the night was over. We pulled into Memphis shortly after midnight. And then Richard woke us up way too early Sunday morning for the rest of the drive home. Needless to say, Emily and I did just a wee bit of growling and grumbling that morning.

Part of feeling very behind is because this year we didn't put the Christmas tree up until the 1st of December. (We usually put it up the weekend after Thanksgiving, but we were in Louisiana and then Richard was out of town. We certainly couldn't do it without him.).

I had to share this photo from the tree decorating. Emily wanted me to take this.  She's so funny.  I told her after about the 15th shot that she really ought to move the ornament further down his paw, so it looked a little more realistic. ;)

I also, so very unwisely, decided this was the year I needed to revamp my Christmas decorating.  This is our 4th Christmas in Missouri and everything was feeling a little stale.  I'm almost done and have most of the after-decorating clean up done too.  I promise I'll share next time I post.

In between all of the decorating and some graphic design work, I took one evening to finish this page I started at a crop last month.  I just love it.  It is a testament to kit scrapbooking, having coordinated elements at your fingertips is just the best.  All the elements and all but one of the papers came from the Mendocino kit at Studio Calico.  (Very surprised it's still available.)

I also finished my Christmas cards this weekend.  I'll be visiting the post office on Monday!!  Yippee!

Just a wee bit

Yesterday, I finally got around to typing up our holiday run down, but their is still more to share from our Thanksgiving trip to Louisiana.

Last night, we (the kids and I at dinner last night) were feeling just a wee bit sorry for ourselves that we didn't get to have turkey leftovers.  No turkey sandwich, no second helping of all that yummy goodness that is Thanksgiving.

We were so sad....until I remembered the reason we didn't have leftovers is because we had fried fish and shrimp at my mom's on Friday!!!

Miles has found his niche at Nana's house.  He is my stepfather, Bill's helper.  And being the helper has it's privileges.  You get to be the chief sampler. :)

And I'll just set the record straight right here.  There is no better fried catfish and shrimp than at my mom's!  We don't get to go home very often, so it's our standing meal request.  We've become well aware of the the fact that fish or shrimp really aren't worth eating in Missouri.

Given the mild winters in Baton Rouge, the best place to be at my mom's is the back porch. Such good times with our family.  It was especially good to see my grandparents from Mississippi.

And my sister from Houston was in town too!

From here were headed further south to my cousin's wedding.  More to come!