my journal is a hybrid digital-paper project, with some pieces done on the computer and then printed out to stick into the book

to hold it all, a Maya Road 8″ chipboard binder, covered with K&Co paper

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title page

I liked the idea of using favourite photos from our Christmas celebrations for this page, so I combined some photos of the kids with some from stock.xchng too for this semi-graphic title page. very simple. the centre frame is by Meredith Fenwick, and I digitally created the datestamp just for this, the heart buttons have been in my stash for the longest time, just what I wanted for this page!

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Day 1 - manifesto

bazzill cardstock and buttons, MaryFran digital papers (NitWit Collections)

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Day 2 - Christmas weather

and that’s bushfire smoke in the photo, taken December 5th.

materials: bazzill cardstock, digital papers from Jeri Ingalls’ Happy Holiday kit and pieced tree cased from the digital tree in her kit

journalling: Drought, drought and more drought - it seems like it will never rain again. Our paddocks are bare and burnt-off. And with unusually dry conditions and earlier-than-ever hot weather, there are already bushfires around Victoria, so this Christmas season is a worrying time on the land. Our Christmas day is likely to be hot, although hopefully not unpleasantly so. This year we are heading to my Dad’s after lunch on Christmas Day, so the kids will be able to take a dip in the pool if it’s hot, or just play some backyard cricket with the cousins, before gift-giving in the air-conditioned loungeroom.

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Day 3 - Christmas cards

a simple page, but probably the most interactive page I’ve ever made! Simply an envelope stuck onto the page, and this year’s chrissie card tucked into it, with a copy of last year’s card (for safe-keeping) and our card list.

journalling inside the card: Sending Christmas cards has always been part of my family Christmas. As kids, Jenny and I “helped” Mum by licking envelopes and sticking stamps, and going with Dad in the car around the neighbourhood to letterbox-drop those who lived close-by. Nowadays it seems to be the only time we contact and hear from old friends who are now far away, but it’s always good to get that reminder in the post that they still think of us. My elderly aunts seem to appreciate the remembrance each year, and their cards are often the earliest we receive. More and more of our friends send a family letter with their cards, and I’ve been sending one too these past few years, although we never seem to have any exciting news to share. I make many of the cards I send out, some stamped or pieced and altered, and last year I sent a photo-card of the kids that was well-received. This year’s card was a bit more rushed and lacking a bit creatively due to my dental issues, but the kids were keen to have our annual Christmas photo shoot, and I’m sure people will be glad to see my gorgeous little group. 

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Day 4 - ideal Christmas (a girl can dream, right?)

photos from stock.xchng, this one went real graphic/simple on me

journalling: Christmas Day has always been a frenzied rush of visiting & eating & presents, so my ideal Christmas would involve no travelling, no visiting, no over-indulgence. I’d like to take the children along to a midnight Mass, to celebrate the wonder of Christ’s birth in the quiet stillness of the night. I’d like to sleep in, till 8am, and enjoy gifts with the kids in our pyjamas. We could have our special Christmas breakfast of croissants and fruit before heading to Church, and come home for a leisurely lunch of salads and summer fruits. A nap on the couch in the afternoon while the kids play with their new toys, and after dinner we could drive around town and admire the festive lights on everyone’s houses. That sounds like a great Christmas Day to me!

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Day 5 - how many sleeps?

materials: more of MaryFran’s gorgeous papers, printed onto textured white bazzill cardstock and cut into squares, elements from MaryFran also

journalling: Although we’ve never done Advent calendars in our house, we always count down the sleeps till Christmas. The kids make countless trips to the calendar to count “how many sleeps”, it’s starting to get exciting!

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Day 6 - happy holidays

I made a choice to skim past the negative stuff, for lots of reasons.

journalling: Most of my childhood Christmasses tend to blend together into a blur of large noisy happy family gatherings, and these are my happiest memories, the memories of a child, blissfully ignorant of the tensions and family strife, and oblivious to the hard work behind the scenes which made Christmas such a magical time for the child me. Many of our Christmasses in the early years of our marriage were tense and unhappy, being torn between two family gatherings, unable to stand up for ourselves and say “no”, and racing around on Christmas Day with over-done kids, finding very little enjoyment in the day. I still dislike the necessity of travelling for hours on Christmas Day, and spending the night away from home, and one day we will put our foot down and say no, but for now we just grin and bear it, and trust that we’re making the same sort of happy memories for our kids that I have of my childhood Christmasses.

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Day 7 - so much to do

a merciless scraplift of Shimelle’s layout for this prompt, more MaryFran goodies and bazzill cardstock. gift lists are hidden on the tags - don’t want to give away any secrets!

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Day 8 - it’s beginning to look like Christmas

my pages are getting simpler as I go along - not what I intended, but I can live with it.

just bazzill cardstock, computer journalling, and my own photos of goings-on around my house …

journalling:

street decorations in Main Street
Christmas trees in front windows
house decorations coming out
painted greetings on shop windows
the arrival of Christmas cards in the mail
shop displays
houses lit up at night
Christmas baking

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Day 9 - traditions

materials: MaryFran paper, bazzill cardstock, various buttons from my stash

journalling: We have few family traditions, having been tied to extended families for so many years we simply didn’t have the time or space to work at creating traditions for our own family unit. But the last few years have seen us beginning to reclaim our Christmas, and we have begun to build on a few traditions for our own children to enjoy.

the Christmas photo shoot
setting up lights on the house
sending a family Christmas letter
Christmas Eve carol service at Church
a Beanie Kid in the top of each stocking
ham-and-cheese croissants for breakfast

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Day 10 - all the trimmings

wrapping papers to match the silver theme of our tree this year, it’s gonna look so purty!

journalling: Once we put up the tree, I start wrapping gifts each night when the children go to bed - they always love the surprise of finding things under the tree. I always have to be careful not to put out anything ‘guessable’, as the go through everything and check the labels, and get excited all over again!

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Day 11 - the Christmas tree

another simple page - bazzill, various rub-ons for the title, silver gel pen, and silver glitter ribbon from my stash

journalling: This year, Kate decided our tree should be decorated only in silver, with the white lights. Next year we will have a new tree, and the other kids will be allowed to cover it with every decoration we have, and the coloured lights too.

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Day 12 - Christmas past

more MaryFran goodies, I hand-cut the frame for the photo from some scrap white, and used my new Stampin’ Up stamps too!

journalling: This photo is the only one from our Christmasses in Parkdale. Our Santa sacks were printed pillowcases, and they were always stuffed full of presents on Christmas morning. We could open the wrapped gifts just as soon as we could get Mum and Dad into the livingroom, and then we put everything back into the sacks and trouped across the court to our neighbours’ house - Edna and Roy Burlock. They were grandparent-aged, and enjoyed having us come over to show what Santa had brought. Mum was always so careful to make sure we all got exactly the same number of gifts, so that none of us could feel that we’d missed out.

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Day 13 - tales of Christmas presents

background and journalling papers from Erica Hite’s Joyful Season at Scrapgirls, paper hand-pieced from scraps of MaryFran papers

at home the kids put out a small stocking on the back of the couch, as we have no mantlepiece over the fireplace. I fill those lollies, a small gift or two, and a Beanie Kid sits in the top nicely. They are allowed to look into the stockings, but no presents can be opened until Mum and Dad are up. Then they can open the small gifts in their stockings. I’m the one who gives out the presents from under the tree, making sure that each child gets one to unwrap before anyone gets another - seeing as they usually only get three gifts from us, I try to slow this process down if I can, and encourage them to enjoy all the gifts, and not just their own. In between rounds of their own gifts, they like to give their home-made gifts to Dad and Mum, and to each other. After the kids have all their loot, they give Daddy his gifts, and I usually try to wrap 6 gifts so they can each give him a parcel. And then they give me the presents I have bought for myself.
at xxx Christmas we usually do gifts after the meal. We gather in the loungeroom, and each family takes its turn to give their gifts to everyone else, so each person always seems to have a parcel in their lap. Sometimes it gets hard to keep track of who gave what for the purpose of thankyous, but it is usually a fairly sedate and comfortable process.
at yyy Christmas we all crowd into the tiny loungeroom, and Ray’s Mum passes out presents as they come to had, so sometimes the distribution is uneven, and a child sits with empty lap while others open a pile of gifts. It’s almost impossible to keep track of who to thank, especially when the big boys start the paper fight!

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Day 14 - fa la la la la

uber-simple, cardstock and ink

I love Christmas music, especially the traditional Church carols, although even some of the more secular songs can make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside too. I love that this is one time of the year when it is acceptable to sing praises to God in the wider community, even if they don’t realise it.
We don’t ever play much music at our house - there’s usually enough noise going on here without adding music to the mix too! But I will play a few of my Christmas cds in December.
The kids have begun a music tradition of their own too - they play my vinyl recording of Bing Crosby while we are putting up the tree. Only thing is, they set it going at 45 rpm so that it sounds like the chipmunks!
I’m looking forward to the Christmas Eve carol service at Church, where everyone gets the chance to sing along to all the old favourites, and some uniquely Australian advent hymns and carols too…

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Day 15 - visiting

photo taken with the timer feature on Matt and Liss’ camera sat on top of the wheelie bin (2004); bg paper and birds from Keri Schueller’s Christmas Whimsy collection at ScrapGirls, doodle from the DDE Art for Asher collection

journalling: we take turn about to visit our families for Christmas and Boxing Day - this year with my family on Christmas Day (we’ll head down in the afternoon), and Boxing Day at Ray’s parent’s home. and one day they can all drive for 2 hours to visit at our place for Christmas!

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Day 16 - grateful

bazzill kraft for background, flower from stash, red paper from Dianne Miller at ScrapGirls

journal strips
healthy and whole children to share the wonder and blessing of Christmas.
a wonderful husband who provides good things for us at Christmastime and all year.
quiet Christmas morning this year, and the opportunity to worship on Christmas morning.

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Day 17 - you better watch out

I skipped Shimelle’s prompt for today, as it really didn’t suit where I was at this Christmas, and substituted something fun - our holiday movie list!

materials: MaryFran papers, swirl is TracyAnn’s but cut from MaryFran paper

journalling: Part of the fun stuff of Christmas is being allowed to watch our favourite Christmas movies and television shows. I have such fond memories of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, with the adorable Burl Ives snowman, Frosty the Snowman, and Charlie Brown’s Christmas.  I’m hoping to get these classics to show my own children, but in the meantime there are remakes of old classcs, fun new movies, and our favourite “It’s a Wonderful Life” - who ever heard of an angel named Clarence? And a part of my Christmas Eve tradition, when the kids are all off to bed, is to do the final wrapping, and filling of stockings in front of the Tv, in company with the crowds at the Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne for the Carols by Candlelight. All part of our Christmas.

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Day 18 - what’s to eat?

photos taken on Christmas Day of our yummy fruit and cheese platters for lunch, and added to the page. bg paper by Dani Mogstad, journal tab cards by Shabby Princess

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Day 19 - dear Santa

bg paper made with an overlay by Nancie Janicz-Rowe and a Dover santa image

my letter to santa: dear Santa, I know I am very blessed, but sometimes I forget. Sometimes I think I am not doing a very good job raising my children when they squabble with each other. I am having a hard time finding my Christmas spirit this year, being in pain with my teeth, with the drought, and bushfires, and I want to find it soon so I can help my kids to have a memorable Christmas. Thank you Santa, for bringing wonder and magic to the world. love always, Debbie

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Day 20 - unexpected news

papers by MaryFran, faux postage from ScrapArtist, cancelled with a Studio Astarte stamp, and lots of Bazzill cardstock

hidden journalling about how we received a christmas letter from a friend telling us of the breakdown of their marriage, very sad news.

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Day 21 - do you see what I see?

very simple, lots of white space, the printed garland is by MaryFran (of course)

journalling: Apart from the “creating zone” - my scrapdesk, where sundry cards and handmade gifts are being created at any given time of the day - the house is staying fairly neat, and looking nicely Christmas-ified. Cards arriving in each day’s mail are hung above the woodheater, the beanies are lined up on the buffet, our various bits and pieces are on display. It certainly looks like Christmas!

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Day 22 - tell me a story

another prompt I changed out, I really wanted to include our Christmas reading - I photographed the covers of some of our favourites and included them in the mini-book I stuck onto the layout

background paper by Jeri Ingalls, doodle by Ida at Catscraps

journalling: part of our happy Christmas traditions is being able to read and re-read our favourite Christmas stories, finding new stories and introducing the classics to our children. Beautiful illustrations and wonderful stories help to make our final few days before Christmas a time of joy and excitement, reflecting on the true meaning of this time in literature old and new.

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Day 23 - the stockings were hung

bg paper by Jen Wilson (Homespun Christmas - an oldie), rub-on figure from MMBI, photo taken on Christmas Eve to be added to the layout

journalling: On Christmas eve, the children will put name labels on their stockings and lay them along the back of the couch for me to pop a few things into - a small wrapped gift, some lollies and chocolate, and a new beanie kid to sit in the top. On Christmas morning they are allowed to explore these even before Mum and Dad are awake - although this proceeding usually generates enough excitement and loud whispering to wake Mum anyway. Not a big deal, not a lot of goodies, but another small part of our traditions that helps to make a happy Christmas.

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Day 24 - Christmas Eve

bg paper by Dianne Rigdon (Humbug), digital paint stroke by Fee Jardine, gold ornament and gold paper from stash, journalling block edged with metallic gold rub-on

journalling: Just one more sleep till Christmas! All the presents are bought and wrapped, the food is in the fridge and ready to go, I spent some time today creating gift-card and cash wallets for those people on our list who are impossible to buy for. The carol service this evening at Church was packed out - Barry had to bring in extra seating from the hall to accomodate all the visitors. The singing was wonderful. Then we were home again, the children got into their pyjamas, and we had a few stories - this year was the Fox’s Story, and the Christmas Kitten by James Herriot. Kate read “Twas the Night before Christmas”, and they put out their stockings before heading off to bed. Once I was certain they were asleep, I filled their stockings and watched “Carols by Candlelight” on TV. There is something deeply calming about the quiet lateness of Christmas Eve, when there is nothing more to be done but rejoice in the holiday. Now I will go to bed too, praying for the one thing I want most for Christmas - rain. Blessings and peace. 24/12/2006

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Day 25 - Christmas Day

bg paper is by Syrin at Catscrap, printed on bazzill (not showing up so well in the photo, but it really is lovely), the calendar is mine with a frame by Meredith Fenwick, I made the tree from stuff in my stash, even found enough red sequins (but only just), journalling behind the photo of Isaiah (one of my favourites from our Christmas photo shoot)

journalling: Christmas Day was much nicer this year, slower and more relaxed. The kids woke me just after 6am with their excited whisperings, and we dragged Ray out at 7 for presents, which we took our time with. We finished breakfast too late to get to Church, so the kids got to watch their new Dragonheart dvd while they played and created with their new stuff. We enjoyed our special lunch, and headed off to Dad’s place just after 2.30 pm. Jenny’s kids had arranged another ‘Carols by daylight’ programme, after which we had presents and dinner, and lots of visiting. I didn’t take so many photos, I took a few video grabs, but mostly I just enjoyed the moment. Everyone had headed off home by 11pm, and we got the kids’ beds out and settled them, happy and tired, but just a little disappointed that another wonderful Christmas has been and gone.

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Day 26 - Boxing Day

more MaryFran papers for the background, and scraps for the hand-made pressies. hidden journalling on this one, it’s my journal, and I’ll rant if I want to! (but won’t post it just in case anyone involved reads it here)

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Day 27 - home again

very simple, bazzill, flower from my stash (loving the hot-glue gun for this project), Meredith Fenwick frame for the journalling box.

journalling: It’s so good to be home, I’m so very tired. The kids have toys all over the place, various projects at differing stages of completion, lego bits and parts everywhere. I tried to make a start at organising some space for all the new stuff, cleaning out some old stuff, and there are loads of washing to be done too. James arrived at 10am for a visit, and stayed all day, it was so good to catch up with him too - but now it really does seem like Christmas is over.

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Epilogue

background created with layering a number of papers and overlays by Tanya Todd-Krasen (Play on Elements CD vol 2, no longer available), and one of MaryFran’s adorable angels. this page is all digital, printed onto (you guessed it) Bazzill cardstock. font for quote is sweetheart by Ronna Penner

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