Days of December 30 - 31

Happy New Year everyone! I must say that I am glad to have this "little" scrapbook project done. Here are my last two days of pages. I have to admit that I lost some of my enthusiasm after Christmas Day. I had some fun activities written in my planner for the days following Christmas but I just didn't feel like doing them & I think the kids just wanted down time to play with their Christmas gifts & their friends - so I bagged the ideas I had planned and just ended up filling in these pages with whatever we ended up doing. If I do this project next year - I will be doing it differently but I still am glad I took it on and I will have a wonderful album that records all we did in December. I am less than satisfied with the hat and wordart embellishments I added to yesterday's layout for the New Year's Eve Party but I just wanted to be done. Scrap Orchard is closed until Jan. 4 but then I'll probably end up downloading a New Year's Kit and changing out the embellishments on this page before I print it & put it in my album - for for now I just wanted to be done so I could do something else. I already have a new project underway and want to get it going. I'll show you in my next post. Oh and don't forget that today DHD opened. See my previous post for more information.

Oh and one more thing - even if this is just a note to myself LOL. I thought many of the photo prompts and journaling prompts on the pages I did over this month were fabulous and I didn't always follow them but I did take photos of most of them and will be doing additional pages - not necesarrily following the same design of these pages I have done but where ever my ideas take me - so we'll see what comes of it.

Days of December 26 - 29

No commentary from me on this post - I am just happy to be caught up on my December pages & now I am going to head out and do some sledding with the kids on our beautiful new snow!

Days of December 22 - 25

I realized after loading all these pages that I have them going from oldest to newest but I'm just going to leave it this way. I am doing good to even get this many posted. Christmas just got busy busy - as I am sure you can relate. We had a wonderful Christmas day and I hope you did too. Now to just keep the kids entertained while they are out of school this week and try to keep my wits about me LOL. Clayne actually took today off & so that is why I am not getting all the way caught up on my Days of December posting. I feel pretty good about getting 22-25 up though.


Our bowling scores were lousy but we sure had fun! It was obvious that we had way too many treats around our house this holiday season because it was days after the pretzel rods were packaged and put away before any of the kids asked where they went and wanted some. I told them we would make more for Valentine's day since we have already over eaten this whole month. Since there is still plenty around here they seem ok with that.

This activity turned out to be lots of fun. I had tried to schedule it for an earlier evening in the month since it involved going to a department store and I try really hard to avoid the department stores... or any stores... the week of Christmas but it just couldn't be helped since we just had to do this activity LOL. We went to ShopKo and it was actually pretty quiet in that store for the 23rd of December. We divided into two teams and we had a list of items to search the store for and then we each had a digital camera and needed to photograph the items. We actually tied but I suppose that is for the best.

We did the normal stuff on the 24th that we always do. We read the Christmas story from Luke in the bible and attended the Bodily family party with the traditional pass along gift game. One of Clayne's Aunts or his Dad write a story with lots of "left" and "right" in the story and we pass a gift (always a little food item like a box of crackers or nuts or the like) until the story is done and then you keep what you end up with. We also sprinkled out Magic Dust for the reindeer and Santa & left out cookies and letters for Santa.

Christmas Day was EARLY! Clayne and I got to bed at 1 and then the kids were up at 2:30! I actually only heard them at 4 but they had already been up for a while. We had told them that they couldn't wake us up before 8 - ya right. They didn't knock on our door til then but they had woke us up way too early! They all seemed pretty happy with what they got - even Cheyenne had to take back her words. Earlier this Christmas season when we told them they would be getting only 3 gifts from Clayne and I she had said this would be the worst Christmas ever and was not happy at all. When on Christmas day I asked her if it was the worst Christmas ever she smiled and said... No! Here is what Santa left this year - Cheyenne got an acoustic guitar, Morgan some basketball shoes, Carson a lego set, Savannah a Barbie electric guitar. Hopefully I will get layouts done soon that showcase these memories but for now.... Have a wonderful day!

Days of December 20 & 21

Here are a couple more days pages. The kids enjoyed making some more gift tag cards and I shared a picture of a few below. We just kept them easy and simple but I thought they turned out cute. Tonight I gave the kids the opportunity to vote on an activity since I didn't really feel like doing what I had on my calendar. They voted to go bowling so we are off to the bowling ally here in a few minutes. Hope you are all enjoying the week of Christmas. I can't believe it is already so close. I was sitting around this morning just reading a book and thought... Hey what are you doing when Christmas is so close and the gifts aren't even all wrapped. I guess tomorrow I better finish up the odds and ends like wrapping so that I am not up all night Thursday.

Days of December 18 & 19

Yesterday just got busy busy so here are two days worth for my Days of December. I am baking a ham right now for Sunday dinner and it smells so delish! I can't wait for dinner. I was planning to cook one of my turkeys that are out in my chest freezer for Christmas but I think I am going to wait until New Years day for that since my MIL has invited our family up for Christmas dinner and she is going to cook a turkey for that. So that is why ham seemed a good choice for today. Those who know me all know that I buy at least 4 turkeys at Thanksgiving so I can cook them at intervals over the winter. They are so inexpensive and yummy. Ok... I ramble... Have a nice Sunday.

Days of December 17

Days of December 16

Yesterday I decided to look for a puzzle one last place... Big Lots and yep I found what I was looking for. I really wanted one about Christ and they had some for $5. Much more affordable than the ones at Deseret Book. I really liked the ones at Deseret Book but I didn't want to spend that much and they were smaller pieces too. I wanted one my kids wouldn't get too frustrated with. We also made our yummy gingersnap cookies. I shared the recipe on my blog a while back but if you missed it click HERE. Bye for now & thanks for checking up on us.

Days of December 14 & 15

Here are days 14 & 15. Whew... this month is going by so fast... already half over! On the 14th we did a Mad Lib as a family and the kids were in hysterics. You can make one too by going to Family Fun HERE. The girls enjoyed making Finish Stars but the boys thought they looked too complicated. You can find directions to make them HERE. On the 15th I conducted personal interviews of each of my kids. I don't get that old dinosaur (the video recorder) out very often and so they loved feeling like celebrities LOL. I think it will be fun to see how their answers to the questions change each year. We also made a slushy drink that we all enjoyed. It was easy. You just take one can each of frozen orange juice, pineapple juice & lemonade and add 3 cans of water then freeze it in ice cube trays & when frozen serve with 7 Up. Smash the cubes with a fork and you have a easy and yummy slush. Until tomorrow.... Happy Holidays!

Days of December 13

I absolutely adore these nativity puppets that my SIL Shelly made for us as a gift a few years back. (this picture doesn't even show half of the puppets) Ever since that year, we always do a special Family Home Evening lesson in December using them. I also came up with an idea to make each kid their own 12 day count down chain for Christmas. On each strip is written a compliment. I wrote 3 for each child and so did Clayne and then we had each child write 2 for each of their siblings. At the top or end of the chain is a bracelet that I picked up at Deseret Book that is a "Choose the Right" bracelet for them to wear. When I read the compliments that Carson wrote to Savannah one of them said, "I like it when you let me beat you up." I erased the latter portion of his "compliment" so he could re-write it & say something nice. He then wrote, "I like it when you let me play with you." Some of the other "compliments" were not what I had hoped for but I decided to just leave them and let them be what they were because that is what the kids wanted to write. Still they were funny to me & some were eye openers for me too. I'll share some of them and you can read more if you want.

Savannah's compliments on her chain were:
* I like it when you let me play on your computer - from Carson (she has an old computer in her room with no internet connection)
* I like it when you let me play with you - from Carson
* Thank you for being on my side sometimes when Morgan and/or Carson isn't sometimes - from Cheyenne
* I like it when Savannah lets me hang out with her sometimes - from Cheyenne
* Pretty - from Morgan
* Nice - from Morgan
* I love your kind heart - from Mom
* I love your way of obeying - from Mom
* I love your happy attitude - from Mom
* You help others - from Dad
* You are very loving - from Dad
* You look for ways to help others - from Dad

Carson's compliments on his chain were:
* Thank you for helping me - from Savannah
* And I love you very much - from Savannah
* Letting me play with your legos - from Morgan
* Playing with me - from Morgan
* I like it when you and Mom make me laugh with your jokes that have no meaning to them. Maybe that is why they have humor in them? HA! - from Cheyenne
* Thank you for being stupid sometimes so it makes me look smarter! - from Cheyenne
* I love the way you make me laugh every day - from Mom
* I love how creative you are with legos - from Mom
* I love how you always kiss me goodnight - from Mom
* You are very competitive - from Dad
* You try very hard to be your best - from Dad
* You are a hard worker when you want to - from Dad

Morgan's compliments on his chain were:
* Thanks for giving me gum - from Savannah
* Thanks for giving me candy - from Savannah
* I like when you don't mess with my legos - from Carson
* I like when you let me stay up - from Carson (they share a room and sometimes don't want to go to bed at the same time)
* Thank you for doing sports so I could be the musically talented one in the family. - from Cheyenne
* I like it when you are nice and on my side sometimes. - from Cheyenne
* I love to see you playing nice with Savannah - from Mom
* I love how reverent you try to be at church - from Mom
* I love how you are friends with everyone - from Mom
* You are helpful to others - from Dad
* You are friendly to others - from Dad
* You have a kind heart - from Dad

Cheyenne's compliments on her chain were:
* Thanks for painting my nails - from Savannah
* Thanks for doing my hair - from Savannah
* I like when you don't fite (fight) with Mom - from Carson
* Thanks for not going in my room - from Carson
* Being nice - from Morgan
* Helping me - from Morgan
* You really are beautiful. I love you! - from Mom
* Thanks for always keeping your room clean - from Mom
* I love the way you play the piano - from Mom
* You are respectful to your church leaders - from Dad
* You are musically talented - from Dad
* You are very competitive - from Dad

Days of December 12

Another quick post to share our holiday happenings for December 12. Hope you are all happy and well.

Days of December 10 & 11

Today I am actually ahead of the game in my daily posting. I decided to go ahead and post the 11th which is today - usually I post each day the following day. We are watching Night At The Museum Battle of the Smithsonian & I rarely can just watch a movie. I usually only kind of watch and have my laptop with me which is what I am doing now so I had time to put these pages together and post them. Today we made scarves & they were inexpensive, easy & cute! They were about $1 each. I just picked out polar fleece that matched each of my kids personalities and got 7 inches for each kid. I evened up the cut when I got home and then cut 3 inch strips at each end to create fringe. The kids tied a knot on each fringe and easy... done. Carson's has a soccer theme and Morgan's has a multi sport theme. Yesterday on the 10th we made sugar cookies using the classic cookie recipe. I posted my sugar cookie recipes on my blog in 2007 and if you would like to grab the recipes you can click HERE to go to that post. We also went out to dinner as a family last night. My kids always love that but I don't take it personally against my cooking - instead I just enjoy a break!

Today I got some more of my Christmas shopping done today. I am getting very close to being done & that feels good! I probably would have finished but I decided to do some coupon shopping at Albertsons & to go out to lunch with Clayne and before I knew it the kids were home from school. Maybe I'll get out tomorrow and finish it up & do some wrapping....

Days of December 8 & 9

Two days passed quickly again. So here goes! We made two yummy treats - homemade caramels (which we make in the microwave & they are easy!) and homemade fudge. I shared my caramel recipe two Christmas' ago on my blog if you want to get the recipe go HERE and we made the Carnation fudge recipe that you can find HERE. I posted earlier this month that we are reading a Christmas story together each night. We had been reading from a book I found in our Christmas stuff called The Most Loved Christmas Stories but after reading Babouscka, The Little Fir Tree, The Little Match Girl and a few others, we decided that these stories were not happy enough and we started to just read some of our story books in our collection and I also searched the internet and found a fun collection to print off that we are also using now. You can print off a collection for yourself by visiting HERE - just ignore the message to update your bookmark & be sure to scroll to the bottom of the page to find the PDF story collection. Enjoy!

Days of December 7

Well Day Seven is pretty self explanatory so I am going to leave it at this and go do today's activity with the kids. Thanks for checking in on us & have a wonderful day!