Today is the day for some serious consideration. Do I want this album to be all digital (well, that's a no-brainer! Of course I do.), hybrid, or all hands on paper-stuff? Do I want it to be 8x8 or 12x12? I am going to design it as a 12x12, but probably print it as an 8x8. I need to come up with the actual alb... Actually, I have the perfect 8x8 album. It is covered in a red velvet that just screams Christmas. So there you go. :)

Jessica has given us an awesome sketch/template (depending on how you are doing your book). It is so extremely customizable, and you can flip it, turn it, rearrange it to come up with many, many, many different layouts. Here is an example of one:



There are also some awesome journaling tags and date stickers included. I am very excited about how the album is going to turn out. I've already started looking at a variety of kits to use for this album. We will have to see which I choose!

Polly prints the prompt cards precisely...say that 10 times fast! So the assignment today was to actually get those cards printed! Yesterday I was messing around with the cards in PSE, but it was taking a long time to get the colors I wanted exactly right.

So I slept on it.

This morning I had a flybaby moment: I was trying to be a perfectionist and create the perfect product. These are prompts, for goodness sake! These aren't the finished product, they are a tool to help us create the finished product. And they are beautiful with the colors they have, even if I am thinking of a final album of completely different colors. And they actually fit my decor, which is good because they are going to be displayed on my desk.



So, I printed them. The only thing I changed was the size they printed at. Because finances are so tight, I am in a "use what you have" state of mind, and I had 32 pieces of white cardstock that are 6 3/4" x 9". I printed them on that. I am still deciding what I am going to display them on, but they are printed. And some of them even have writing on them (for example, Dec 10 is Steven's concert--so that is written in that day's do section).

Woohoo! I am keeping up and not letting my perfectionism get the best of me!

I've been crocheting like crazy, and while it has been fun, for the most part it takes a while to finish a project. And I still have to finish a gorgeous berry colored blanket that I'm making before Christmas. But, I can't resist adding some other, less time-intensive, crafts to my holiday season. There are some fun looking ones that Jessica has suggested, but nothing is really striking my fancy. I did look at one for decorated tubes for cookies (because I need something to package my 15 DOZEN cookie swap cookies in!), and I got sidetracked by this. I am totally making these pet tags for my dogs for Christmas! They are so cute and so easy...

So to make:

• Dog tags


• Cool Box Bag - I think this will work great for my cookie swap cookies! I need to get working on these, though...the swap is Dec 12


• Christmas Cards


• Christmas Cookies - we will be making lots because we give cookies to neighbors each year. Plus my mom takes them to work, and dont forget the cookie swap I am participating in.


• Helping Steven with presents made out of duct tape. I am liking the pink flamingo purse.


• I'm probably making some Tea Jelly to round out my jelly making this fall.


• And I have to make Divinity. It is my absolute favorite. I'd never made it before, just eaten other people's creations. When I started working in the bakery, another girl and I tried it (a huge batch) and it was awesome! And now that I don't work there, it is an absolute necessity for me to make it at home.

Ahhh...I don't want to be overwhelmed by things to do in December, but I want to do things! This is my life. :)

Here are some activities I know we will be doing:

• Holiday Concert - Steven is in both the regular band and the jazz band at school, so we will be attending his concert (and taking pictures!)


• Christmas Cookie Swap - this is a girlfriend get-together, but it is still a fun activity that warrants pictures--especially since I will be with my girlfriends!


• Cookie-Making - to participate in a cookie swap means you must make cookies! This is fun, because we all get involved (even hubby comes in and "steals" cookies as we are making them. *this may qualify as a 'make' rather than a do.


• Watch Christmas movies - this is something we always do as a family, and sometimes we invite other people to enjoy them with us. White Christmas is our Christmas Eve movie.


• Make and Assemble Teacher Gifts - Steven has 8 classes at school, although 2 of them are with the same teacher. That means 7 Teacher Gifts. We've already decided we are making cocoa kits with homemade peppermint marshmallows.


• Look at Christmas lights - this is something we didn't do last year, but it really is one of my favorite things to do. I think part of why we didn't do it is that I was working in the bakery so I was in bed early. Now that I am a freelance writer, I can stay up later than I did, so we can go after dinner.


• Attend our local Festival of Trees - This is actually coming up: Dec 4-5. It's fun to see how everyone has decorated the trees, and it's fun to bid on them, even though we are always outbid.

That's it for now. But it really is quite a lot, so I can get my prompt cards filled out!

Jessica has created some beautiful prompt pages for us to print. I believe the goal is to display them, like a daily calendar, to help us complete each goal for the day. We aren't supposed to complete them yet (except for the "Do" and "Make" sections), just print them and figure out how to display them to fit our own life. Here is an example of one of the pages:



Tomorrow and Thursday she will be giving us ideas on what we can fill in for the Make and Do sections. I already have one that will be in there for one of the days--The most recent Pillsbury magazine cookbook has a recipe for homemade peppermint marshmallows in it. Steven and I will be making those to go with his teacher gifts this year (which will be cocoa mix and marshmallows). Very excited!

I am also thrilled about the photo prompts because one of the things I know about myself when it comes to December is that I am really bad at taking pictures. I don't really have Christmas pictures because I am so caught up in the moment of what is happening. Hopefully this will help add a picture or two of Christmas for me. :o)

I signed up for a class (Holidays in Hand) at JessicaSprague.com. I'm excited because I haven't had a lot of time to scrapbook. But I miss it, and I am hoping that setting aside time will allow me to get some scrapping time in. The first assignment is to write down your values and goals. So let's get started.

My goals:

To spend time together as a family, focusing on being together. We were doing weekly Christmas movie nights, but we didn't last year. Maybe we will do that again this year. We used to drive around and look at Christmas lights, but again, that has fallen by the wayside. We should do that again. Maybe have an impromptu photo taking session. Maybe just make cookies.

We have already implemented (several years ago) a standard of one Christmas gift per person--that is, each person gives one gift for each person in the family. No more than one. And, to be honest, that is really hard. At least for me. I see stuff that I want to get my kids, but in the back of my mind I keep remembering that one gift. And because it is only one--I want it to be the best possible gift for that person. I already have my daughter's gift this year figured out. It is so awesome! I wish I could share it with you, but there is always a chance that she will read this, so it will have to wait until after Christmas. My goal is to find the right gifts for the rest of my family.

To spend time with friends. I would like to host a December dinner club. We are having a cookie swap--but that's girlfriends only. We need to get families together. I need to work on that. Everyone is so busy during the holidays, but it is always so much fun to spend time together. Maybe we can just do a cocktail/appetizer hour.

Another goal is to have a memorable, fun Christmas without spending a lot of money. Because, let's face it, money is extremely tight here.

My values:

This is kind of hard. I value time spent together. But what else? I want to teach my kids how important time spent with each other is (actually I think I have taugth them that--but I want to reinforce that).