December Daily

Here we are, December 1st. I have known of a trend in the scrapbooking world to document each day of December for the past couple of years. It is such a wonderful idea, but I don't exactly operate in a manner that allows me to have projects such as a December Daily album ready to go on 12/1. This year is no exception. The only thing that is changing is that I will make the album soon (I hope) and in the meantime, document each day here on my blog. Hopefully I will have pictures with each post too. Right now as I type this, I have yet to take pictures, but another hope is to upload some later on today (by 11:59PM?) -- it's 11:46PM as I am adding the pictures.

So the tree is up! I love it! It's so sparkly! I couldn't resist buying several more ornaments for it today while out and about. And I have to say the girls contributed a lot to its beauty. Truth be told, this is something I was nervous about. I am very anal about anything where creative expression is involved. So I thought that sharing the task of tree decorating would be a big pill to swallow. But hurray for me, it wasn't. Yes, I did go in after they were in bed and move a few things around, but not too much. Only thing missing is the tree topper. I need to find one. This 9' tree of ours can't handle a piddly little Santa hat like past smaller trees have donned.

All of the boxes of Christmas decorations have been unloaded into the front part of our house. Can I just go on record now saying we do NOT have enough? This big house of ours demands some nice decoration and I have little to provide. Sigh! I am going to have to really hit those after Christmas sales this year. Forgive me house. Hannah is running around behind me asking if Santa will like the way we are decorating the house. :) Too cute! I say, "I think so."

Hannah and I made a Christmas chain last night. And this morning she got to rip off Day #25. We also opened door #1 on the Advent calendar I bought last year (at an after Christmas sale). I loved Advent calendars as a little girl! We didn't have them every year, but for some reason, I have distinct memories of excitedly opening each window during the years we did. I am hoping to recreate that same joy for my kids. They will have one each year!

Some projects I would like to accomplish this December are:

• get some Christmas layouts from last year done so I can display them around the house
• bake some braided bread
• bake lots of Christmas cookies for decorating at our scheduled play date on 12/22
• have Hannah make ornaments for all of her friends as a gift (really trying to drill in that giving is more important than getting; this year she has definitely caught on that presents are coming)
• get a nice family picture snapped for a Christmas card (whether they are handmade this year is yet to be determined. I think I might be on the every other year plan)
• find the perfect gift for my husband (probably the toughest thing on the list)
  make a paper garland for the banister
• make some vinyl cutouts for wall decoration

All of this in the midst of preparing for the annual Christmas party we host, Christmas shopping, birthday parties, work Christmas parties, work, etc. I can do this! Right?

Our tree -- they are very hard to photograph

The Christmas Chain