december 12th, 23rd, 24th and 25th

finally....the last three days of my 25 days of december album....between being out of town for new years, being sick, back to school and back to work i was beginning to think that i'd never get this one wrapped up!

but here it is....

here is the december 12th page that i never posted. it features of picture of my two little ones playing a game in the playroom. i'm sorry to say that this is a rare sight in our house because right now these two little guys just get along too well right now. so needless to say i love seeing them playing together whenever it does happen.



my december 23rd entry is about blake's christmas party at school and then baking christmas cookies later that evening.





december 24th - christmas eve....the entry for today talks about our trip to the grocery store to get all the supplies for our christmas dinner. i thought it would be a great idea to include our shopping list because it has both my hand writing on it as well as paul's. i did wish that i had the recent from the shopping trip also, but i'll have to save that one for next year. the 24th entry also includes some of michael's artwork because he spent the afternoon making cards for both sets of grandparents. i love the picture he made of santa and his reindeer so i had to scan it and include in here.







and christmas day...december 25th...







and here's the final album and my final thoughts on this project....



i really did enjoy this project and it is definitely something that i will do again next year. i think i accomplished my original goal of being more mindful and present this holiday season. i did more planning this holiday season than i have done in the past and i think that helped to keep things less stressful during the rush that is in some ways inevitable this time of the year.

i did not end up using a lot of the pre-made pages i put together before i started on december 1st. i tried in the beginning but decided i was stressing too much about what photos i had room for instead of letting the photos drive the process. so next year i will just decide on an album, make a few paper and embellishment selections and consider that my prep work.

a lot of the december photos were shot indoors and i really need to work on my indoor photography.

and i think i will definitely use a larger album size next year - perhaps an 8 x 8 or a 9 x 9.

thanks for stopping by! be back soon!