December Daily 2018: It begins!

Hi,

Remember me? I haven't blogged in months and months, but it is time for December Daily and those stories live here too so off we go. 

If you aren't familiar with December Daily, you can read all about it via Ali Edwards.

Usually the first December Daily post is the cover and/or foundation pages.... neither has been done.  I did actually make foundation pages (go me!), but did not remember to share them in advance so it will all be a surprise.  Most of the supplies are from Ali Edwards' kit, plus the normal assortment of things from my crafting stash.  My days vary wildly as far as the amount of content, photos, etc... These early days have more pages than will likely happen midweek, but they were fun and set a good foundation, I think. 

Today, there are, as usual, some "pre-December" pages a little bit of the introductory pages and then Day 1.  
With all that introduction-- off we go!

This year's album! Red with lots of Christmasey words on the outside.  I was looking at my shelf of December Daily Albums and it seems like I usually choose red or white with some red on it so sticking to true form.  As you can see, it is already looking a bit full with just the base materials included....

 The first page - I like to start with a transparency and this year is no different.  I'm pondering moving our Christmas card to right behind this first transparency, but this is the set up for now.

 Dot to some weird glare issue the angle here is odd, but essentially this is a 3x8 page Chronicling Brent and my date night on Nov. 29th.  We went to the Myriad Garden's "Jingle Mingle" and then wandered around through and near the gardens.  We stopped for drinks and dessert at Flint by the fireside with a great view of the lights.  It was a lovely evening and our traditional start to the season.

 The flip side is Nov. 30 (see that tab on the edge, it is stamped "November"  on both sides for these early pages).  The 30th was part two of "Project Care." This is a community service project run in coordination with New Covenant Methodist Church and kids from B's middle school. They have grade teams - pictured here is B with the 6th Grade boys.  Phase 1 was buying gifts for kids in need, wrapping them, and making gingerbread to decorate.  Phase 2 is a gingerbread decorating party.  Families pay $20 to come decorate and play.  The money is used to fund the gifts for the kids in need.  The kids (like B) help the kids who come to decorate.  There were WAY more volunteers than necessary so the kids who came to volunteer got quite a bit of time to play too.

 This year, as I sometimes do, I've added a calendar at the start.  I plan to add the theme of each day's pages here so it gives a glance at our month, but can also be a sort of index.

 Day 1:  A huge cork #1 adorned with stars and adhered to a transparency. BIG start to December, which seems appropriate as we had a lot going on that day.

 Christmas card - It may not live here in the end, but is resting here for now complete with a Tab to flip to it.  The card is a bit wide for the book, but I like the variety in page size.

 The backside of the card.

 Small page at the begining of Day 1 about Advent Calendars.  The boys are chose a made by mom calendar and M chose an L.O.L. doll calendar.  For day 1 the boys got a little Christmas LEGO to build together and M got an L.O.L. doll.

 Here is the back with M's doll and the kids in the theater ready for the Christmas show!

The two page spread (Yes, I will work on  better photo angles tomorrow).

 Facing that is a large 6x8 photo of the kids in front of the Myriad Garden tree before the OKC Philharmonic Christmas show.  This was our first time attending, but I really liked it.  The music was great and the singing and dancing paired with it were lovely too.  There were lots of great visuals through out and it kept the kids engaged too.

 So here are the facing pages with the 4x6 open. And that's it! Day 1 is done - full of adventures and stars galore.

Ten on Tuesday: Christmas Recap

1.  Merry Christmas!  This week for my Ten on Tuesday I am going to do a brief version of the Christmas recap and hopefully finish up December Daily later in the week.  Above is our family picture from just before Mass on Christmas Eve. I think the kicking M in the head makes this even more classic. M & I have matching hair styles, which is possible a first and very fun.  It is hard to see here, but we each have a braid along one side of our head and then a braided bun.  We made it through a crowded, long Mass sanity intact, although hair barely so as E was pulling out my bobby pins.  Then we had a lovely fun dinner with the Korenaks before heading home. 

 At home, it was in to PJs, setting up Santa's chair, and then quickly to bed after reading "Twas the Night Before Christmas," obviously.

2.  Christmas morning was fun.  B was VERY enthusiastic about his gifts.  Best Christmas Ever -- or so he says.

 M loved Perry --- almost as much as her new costumes that she rotated throughout the day.

 I loved that every time E unwrapped a present he exclaimed - "It's a huge box!"  Easily satisfied little guy.  We spent the day playing and cooking.  M even built her LEGO Friends set for three hours straight. Grandma, Grammie, and Granddaddy all stopped by for a bite and some playing before continuing celebrations elsewhere. It was a fun day and I was thoroughly exhausted by the end.

 4.  The next day was the big Richard/Rouse celebration at Brent's parents' house.  We "might" have still been a little tired, but had a good day. I am so glad Jamie took this photo of us together.

 5.  The next morning brought snow and presents with Grandparents and cousins.  There were some picture taking troubles as M is holding Grayson instead of John, which he was not pleased about, but we persevered.

 I love how all the cousins interact together as they get bigger.

 There were also snowball fights.

 And sledding Oklahoma style on cardboard boxes with a little help from Uncle Brent.

 6.  Then we went home and cleaned and cooked for the Christmas Tea.  Not nearly as much fun, but our resident "Frost fairy"  (aka Periwinkle)  didn't mind the cold at all.

 7.  The Christmas Tea is a long standing tradition in my family.  Historically, boys were not invited, but everyone was invited this year.  The Tea includes an ornament exchange and B got this lovely chandelier ornament via the Barlow-Nguyens.  He had a great time at the party despite some reluctance initially.

 8.  This is sort of what the Tea looks like in the midst of it. This year, it was a mix of friends from my childhood, our families, our friends and their kids (who are now friends of our kids) and a few people from M's class at school.  Busy fun!

9.  Key elements of the Christmas Tea include Christmas Tea Punch (recently Tracie has been making it and did this year), the Dotter Cheeseball, Meringue Mushrooms (which I make with help from whomever I can recruit--this year Audra and Mom -- you can see them in the trifle dish above, and typically Chex Mix.  The Chex Mix was missing this year as our friend Sarah was sick.  So sad to miss her. 

10.  The party began and ended with our family, the Korenaks, and Wainrights.  I loved it.  We had a great time and B got a little video game time with the big boys.  I also love Brent & Eric's bearded looks.  So handsome.

So, it has been a very busy week.  Fun, delicious, exhausting, happy, and much more.  I'm so glad for this very special season. 

December Daily 2014 - Days 22 & 23

On Monday, Brent and I both had to work at least a portion of the day.  When we weren't working we made some cookies to prepare for the evening treat exchange at the Lam's house.  The party was fun and doubly so as the Hoppers were there from Georgia.  I miss them.  It was fun to watch M & Allie catch up, just like their mamas were doing.  

The back of Day 21 was 6x8, but none of the pictures from the party was really going to work at that size and there fere only a few to choose from so a collage didn't make sense.  Instead, I went with this pull page graphic + a little glitter tape. 

The little mini-tree over the banner was on one of Ali's earlier pages this month. I added it here with more confetti bits.  I happened on to these left over from last year's kit and they worked well here. I added washi tape & stars to the journaling card and matching washi tape to seal the confetti pocket. 

Day 23 - Able brought me my new mixer, we got to sleep in, Brent watched the kids while I worked, my mom came by to visit, and the kids enjoyed their videos from Santa.  Everyone was on the nice list!

Crafting - the back of the transparency included another tree/banner and a photo of M & Grandma as my mom opened some early presents.  The Journaling card is like Ali's day 4 and one I did earlier in the month, I really like the design though and felt OK repeating it with the extra "Give Love" stamp this time.

The facing page is a large image of the kids watching E's video from Santa. I love that the tree is in the background.  The ration was such that it didn't print well to the full 6x8 so I added it to a piece of graph paper and some glittery tape. I ended up liking that edging.  I also added some more confetti stars that are floating around in there for now.

SO close the end of December.  My book will continue through at least the 28th and possibly the end of the month so stay tuned for more fun to come and Merry Christmas!

December Daily 2014 - Day 19 - Ice Skating!

Day 19 was so much fun!  We spent the evening playing downtown.  It was nice to get to have some evening fun and that our kids are mostly old enough that we could do this without them going crazy.  We did hop in the minivan at the stroke of 8pm though. (We're not completely crazy, yet). 

The left hand page has very detailed journaling about all our adventures and the title "Play," which was the tone of the evening.  The photo below is the Myriad Gardens with the Christmas lights inside shining through and lighting the outside beautifully. (Star chipboard is from last year's kit). 

 The right page has glimpses of the rest of the story.  We went to the Myriad Gardens Skating with Santa event.  My kids were not really interested in seeing Santa, even with a very, very short line, which made me glad we chose not to wait in the long one last weekend.  They did absolutely love the gingerbread village.  It is full of local buildings and some imagined one made by local businesses and schools.  Then, we went into the gardens and explored the transformation of Christmas there.  There are 100s of poinsettias, Christmas lilies (maybe amaryllis?), and 1000s of LED lights wrapped around bridges, trees, and on snowflakes twinkling above.   There was also a high school choir singing in the background.  We are in the garden maybe 5 times a year via our membership, but the kids loved it all over again at night in the magic of twinkling lights.

Next up, time for ice skating!  There is a small outdoor rink just next to the gardens.  We got everyone ice skates.  We have pictures of M ice skating at E's age, but he very much was not ready.  I made one loop with M and then rescued Brent who handed E to me over the rails. E and I were then the cheerleaders to preserve me feet and his sanity.  He did love dancing to the tunes playing along the side of the rink.  M seems to have finally "got" it and skated many, many laps not holding on to the side and sometimes without Daddy.  Mostly she and Brent went around together and I collected a kiss from Brent each lap (possibly to our children's chagrin :).  B made a few laps, but had a head ache and wasn't quite as confident about his skating as M.  He is out there not hanging on to the wall, but taking very tiny steps.  The presence of many high schoolers hugging the edges may have helped push our kids out in to the center.  Everyone was happy, silly, and enjoying skating, dancing, or whatever.

It was time to go as E began to run out of dancing steam and ate the entire apple he found in my bag (core and all).  We walked back to the car watching the lights of the holiday shoppes, carousel, and Devon Tower decorations in the background.  We bought hot chocolate with homemade marshmallows from the Katiebug food truck (SO good with the marshmallows) and made our way home through OKC's Christmas lights.

Everyone made it home with no meltdowns and lots of laughs. It was a great time and I think we'll go skating again before the rink closes in February.

Crafting notes - Easy peasy today. The journaling card is half of one of the patterned papers from the kit with washi tape around the edges.  The letter stickers are from Evalicious and I've used them here and there throughout the album.  On the right hand page, I cut a few of the tags (from the office supply store) in half.  To one I added stamping using SC Coral Bay (?) ink and a tiny gray star using the luxe momento gray ink.  The top tag is just glitter thickers for the date.  Somewhat humorously, I originally labeled this the 17th and only realized in the morning that it was wrong. Time is moving quickly and my book is getting thick.  Still very much loving this project.

December Daily - Day 14 - Christmas Program!

We ended Day 13 with the above page.  As I finished Day 14, I filled in that transparent pocket with the date and lots of sequins. 

 Day 14 featured our kids' first Christmas Programs at church.  M's class sang four very short songs as they Pre-K and Kindergarten classes took us through the Nativity.  Then the 1-5 grades did a bit more detailed version.  Each grade sang one song and the 5th graders played the various roles in the story.  B's class sang "Silent Night. Grandma and the Korenaks joined us for the fun. It was a really neat experience and I'm so glad it went well.


The left page is just half a page with the photo of B's class.  I like to add the little tabs when there are pages out of page protectors.  I like having these different sized pages her and there in the book and it worked well here as I liked having M & B's class right next to each other.

The transaparency has the date and colorful bits.  The next card was inspired by Ali's foundation pages and I added journaling and a few little colorful stickers.  The bottom portion is M's class and a little silver sticker.  (M is in the center at the base of the star).

 The back of the photo is this December card from the kit.  I may leave it as is or use it as a journaling card for Day 15.  I like it either way and it looks lovely with the pages behind it too, I think.

Crafting notes - I adhered the 14 to a piece of a page protector to hold it in place.  Sadly that piece doesn't fill the whole pocket.  I didn't think it would bother me, but it does so I'll likely replace it so so there isn't that line.

Ten on Wednesday

1.  I'm trying to shop local a little more for my Christmas gifts.  My family has this local Spice Shop and I know how vital this season is for them and for other small businesses.  It is harder though to shop this way with three small kids.  Also, lots of the cool "local" places are just not that "local" to my house. I drove to the Plaza today and it took forever to get there and back and I bought maybe three things and spent lots of time kid herding.

2.  Last year, I discovered Fried Okra on Etsy.  Santa brought E a small elephant and we got a small animal for Maia too.  I really wanted this small bunny for me.  Really.  But I am 35 years old and it seemed like too much money for a stuffed animal for myself in my 30s.  Today, I bought it.  Finally.  It was at the local store I was in (I got a tip from Tracie).  I love it. I truly do even if it makes no sense.  I spent a year waiting to buy myself a small $20 rabbit.  Clearly, I really did want it after all.  E keeps asking to "soft" it (aka pet it), which is also beyond adorable.

3. I was finally well enough to see Grandpa today.  I went early before work because it was important. I brought cards from the kids and I, a photo, and stories.  It was mostly me talking for an hour, but good. It felt good to be there.  So glad I got to visit.

4. Last night, I went and helped out at the spice shop.  We made gift sets, filled hot chocolate pouches, took down the fall decorations and did a little Christmas decorating, filled cinnamon stick and chip bags, added spice to tasters, back stocked, etc.... for four hours.  It was good.  We were berry workers and I'm glad I got to help and spend time with my mom.

5.  M & Z were playing on Tuesday and Z accidentally hit her in the face with a croquet mallet.  She has a big bruise and it hurts.  Today, I had to pick her up from school because she wouldn't quit crying for random reasons.  She told me it was something to do with the elevator.  She told Brent later when he came home that she didn't want people to talk about it or ask her about it anymore and it was bothering her.  I have no idea what is up with her, but do feel sad that she is having a rough week.

6.  I do have a mildly clever new shopping with a 2-year old strategy.  When we go out to run errands or do these attempts at local shopping, I basically make sure he has one or more small figures in his hands.  Currently, Luigi is the preferred "guy" but batman or a small car in the other.  This seems to be helping us make it safely through stores without breaking things, taking things off the shelf, or wandering too far away.  Also, it is totally adorable, as is he.

7.  I bought OU Women's Gymnastics season tickets.  I have two and while M will come sometimes others are welcome to come anytime too.  (I should note that adult season tickets are $15 for the season so really not that big of a buy.)  Let me know if you are interested in coming to a meet or two with us!

8.  I really need to try and pull it together in a list or something all the things I need to do and bring for each kids' school to make it to the 19th.  There is something every single day, basically.  Sending food, or wearing special clothes, or sending money, or donations, or stuff for Christmas projects...It is crazy town.

9.  The kids are both in the Christmas Program at church.  Our family is full of musicians and music teachers.  We believe in lots of practice and lots of rehearsal.  The Pre-K class at least has practiced very little and has several small songs.  I am very dubious about how this is going to turn out.  B's class has only one song (I think) and that seems to be going well.  I will be fascinated to see how this all turns out.

10.  Saturday is going to be a huge day.  First, M has wanted to do St. Lucia's day forever so we're trying that early in the am. (Yes, I tried moving this to a different day, but she KNOWS it is on the 13th and insists it must happen then).  Then, we're trying to see Santa.  Hopefully, we'll fit in lunch sometime before the ladies go to see the Nutcracker at 2pm.  It is all going to be lovely and festive, but definitely a swirl.  

Christmas Tea Time

This is the crew from this year's Christmas Tea celebration. (Able joined us a bit later and isn't pictured).  Taking the annual Christmas Tea picture is a long standing tradition, but many things about this picture aren't.  For one, it is probably 4-5x bigger than the tea once was AND see all those men/boys in the picture? We have started inviting a few of them in because we love them and they they are our family and friends.  (Also, there are few girls in this generation of my family/original Christmas tea ladies).   You'll also see that some folks have ornaments.  That is part of our ongoing ornament exchange.  Everyone got one as miraculously Audra and I somehow managed to buy the perfect amount of extras for those that forgot.   There was also an incredible amount of food, and a few crafts.  I'm hoping the photos of them might be on Audra's camera as I lost mine a few times during the day. 

The ladies in this photo are more the group that might have been at a Christmas Tea roughly 20 years ago (we were all younger).  Another five or so years before that it would just be Audra, Emily, Gina, and I with our moms and Able occasionally joining us.  It was so amazingly delightful to have the Hladik ladies join us this year for the first time in my house!  Thank you all so much for making the drive.

A lot of the Christmas Tea looks like this.  People standing around chatting, eating, and laughing in small groups.  (I think photo credit here may be due to Corwyn, age 3, --whose mom is in the center of this photo watching the camera-- or possibly to his helper B

This was our very youngest guest, Jakub, who is only two months old and slept through the first several noisy hours of the party.  SO cute!

There is alos a bit of this.  Uncle Brent/Daddy is very popular, particularly with the 4-5yr old ladies, and often finds himself being tackled or involved in tossing them around. 

As the guests thinned out these two boys that have only met a couple times before bonded over Skylanders.  A new part of an old tradition. 

Dec. Daily Days 26-28

We'll come back to Christmas Day itself a bit later, but we've been having lots of fun since then as well.  I had to work on the 26th so Brent was home with the kids.  They mostly ran a few errands, played with new presents, and were adorable.  In the afternoon, the Morans came to visit and we had a wonderful time.  It was a wonderful time playing with some of our favorite people 

Day 27: OSSM has an annual all classes reunion each December. I don't know if I've ever been, but this year we brought the whole crew.  Helpfully, there were crafts, LEGOs, and other toys set up in a kids' corner.  We were the only ones who brought kids, but they were very well mannered and played well in their special area.  I ran into an old friend and APO brother, which was definitely the highlight for me (other than our strangely well-behaved children, of course).  In the evening, Grammie & Granddaddy watched the kids so Brent and I could attend the adults-only portion of the reunion too. 

Day 28 - We drove to Tulsa to meet baby Maia!  She was just as beautiful and snuggly as reported! Her parents graciously let us have lots of time to hold her.  Meanwhile, there was a lot going on all around with kids playing dress up, singing on the "stage," and playing games of all kinds.  The Palfreymans joined us late in the day for even more fun!

Here are the two pages together.  I think the small journaling cards work well for days like this and I like having more pictures or more pretty cards in the mix. 

I am happy to report that my PL has also been brought forward to Dec. 21 so it is looking promising for both projects to actually be completed relatively close to their end dates.  I think I'll be running December Daily in to a few days in January because my family's Christmas is on Jan. 1 and we are having our annual Christmas Tea on Jan. 4th.  So look for a few more December Daily posts, but they will likely be grouped more like these.