Christmas Journal - 27th December

I know that I am a little behind again with my journal, but I did sneak an hour in my Crafty Corner this afternoon when we got home from my in laws and did a page for Monday.  Since our Christmas cake had a page of its own, it felt only right that the Christmas Pudding should also be a star for a day!

I love making my own pudding, for me it is all part of the magic, and using my mixing bowl that my Nanna bought me all just adds to the special feelings.  I think it might have only been Hayden and I who got to stir the mixture and make wishes this year, but I did manage to capture that image knowing that I was going to try to journal the whole of our Christmas this year.

I didn't leave myself enough room to journal everything I wanted to, but I know how I feel about it!  I made the little paper pudding by cutting two circles and then using a wreath die to pinch the holly from!

I'm going to have trouble with the next two days journal in that I have taken loads of photos, and then it will be New Years Eve!  Oh well, I'm not going to give up now!  Still undecided about when to finish though - my binding rings are suggesting New Years Day might be when to stop ...

Carole x

Christmas Journal - 26th December

Boxing Day

We had a lovely Boxing Day!  We took the dogs to the beach for a walk and to blow a few cobwebs away after Christmas Day.  It was chilly although not as cold as we thought it would be but it was bright and sunny.  The rest of the day was spent with our very good friends The Moxeys:

We had such a lot of laughs with all our silly presents - funny hats and glasses and soap (!)  It turned into a very late night so we have been a little bit delicate today ...

Carole x

Christmas Journal - 25th December

We had a lovely day!  Our plans changed unexpectedly but if anything, it was for the better.  One regret - I forgot to take photographs of our dinner :(  I still struggled to pick just a few photos though!

I also forgot to take a photo of Morris's latest gift to us (well, it was rather embarrassing that we had company when it was discovered and Alex screamed her head off!)  Loving the timer function on Alex's new camera!  And how good is Skype that we got to see Simon and Mary Anne on Christmas Day even though they are thousands of miles away?

Carole x

Christmas Journal - 24th December

I've been playing catch up today and have managed to do the Big Three pages - all of them double pages for the most important days of my Christmas Journal.  My main problem was choosing which photos to include - ideally I suppose I would have gone with maybe four per double page spread, but there was no way I could whittle them down!

I made a little pocket to pop a couple of extra photos into, along with the journalling and used a few more embellishments than usual - well, it was Christmas Eve after all!

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas!

Carole x

Christmas Journal - 23rd December

When I finished work this afternoon, we were meant to have visitors for a cup of tea and a mince pie (or two!) but the plans had to change when Waitrose phoned Alex and asked her to go in early, which meant that Mum's taxi was booked, and blow my plans!  So, I ended up going to my friend's house instead (for the afore mentioned cup of tea and mince pie!) but forgot my camera :(

So, in the absence of anything else to journal about, I chose another of my favourite Christmas decorations:

Bit worried about what to journal tomorrow - Christmas Eve!!!  How did it get to be Christmas Eve already?!  Note to self: take camera everywhere tomorrow!!!

Carole x

Christmas Journal - 22nd December

Had a funny old start to the day today, whilst out walking the dogs (in the frozen slush) when we realised that my two dogs weren't keeping up with us.  On further investigation, it became apparent that they were up to no good, and Ollie emerged carrying a dead rabbit :(  I think that some team work had been used as there is no way that my nearly 12 year old, eyesight failing, arthritic Spinone had caught it on his own.  He was pleased as punch with himself and there was no way that he was giving it up, not with the offer of biscuits, nor with me trying to prise his jaws open.  So, much to my embarrassment, I had to walk home with a dead rabbit hanging out of my dog's mouth!  He eventually gave in to the temptation of a biscuit and I was able to whip it away ...

I then spent a few hours in the kitchen and made a big batch of mince pies and finished off my Christmas cake:

so that was what I journalled about today!  Another simple layout, but simple means that I am keeping up instead of stressing and being fed up that I am falling behind!  Bit worried about the three main Christmas days when I am planning on doing double pages ...

Carole x

Christmas Journal - 21st December

Today I got two very important things done - the food shopping including the turkey, and I finished the gift wrapping.  I have NEVER before been this late with my wrapping!  I was hugely relieved that the Waitrose lorries had managed to get through to Ringwood and I bought everything on my list that everyone said they wanted because it felt like Christmas to them (OH pork pie, DS little sausages wrapped in bacon , DD Pringles! and I wanted/remembered everything else, like Stilton, red cabbage, cranberries, satsumas and parsnips)  Spent a small fortune, but it's only Christmas once a year!

The kids and I also went to the dentist this morning, no work needed thank goodness!

This afternoon I finally finished my wrapping.  I made a start last week when I wrapped everything for everyone who lives here as I was struggling to hide the gifts.  It feels good to have done that and the food shopping!

So, todays journal page is another simple one that came together quite quickly.  I wanted to do circles instead of the usual rectangles, I used a left over piece of my actual wrapping paper and included one of my handmade tags.  Was unsure where to journal, so added it straight onto the actual page.

Hoping to get into the kitchen tomorrow on my last day off before the big day ...

Carole x

Christmas Journal - 20th December

Wow!  We had such a lot of snow today - but I was working so didn't get to enjoy it really, and by the time I finished it had turned to rain.  However, my children had enjoyed it, and a lovely snowman had taken up residence in our garden.  Alex had taken some photos so they are what I used for today!

I had made the snowman embellishment back in November and have tried to use him on previous pages but he didn't seem right, but today he did!  I used a few similar elements on this page as I did on the first Snow Day page back on 2nd December deliberately (like the Wassail paper, the title font and random punched snowflakes).

Hoping to keep up to date with my journal for the next few days at least ...

Carole x

Christmas Journal - 19th December

I had a long list of things to achieve yesterday, and managed most of them, except the most important!  That will have to be done tomorrow without fail!  Watching a Christmas movie was actually on the list, and we did it!

Carole x