I've had some time the last two days to get a few more pages done on the Christmas Journal. Rather than work sequentially, I've been doing the pages I had photos for, or ones I had written the journaling for already. Since there are several of them, I'll post a few tonight and the rest tomorrow. It's a rather electic scrapbook as I've been choosing papers based on the photos rather than sticking to a particular set of papers or a consistent template. I'm quite enamored of some of the Christmas Journals I've seen this year that have a more consistent look, but I'm not sure how well I'd be able to stick with them. Food for thought for 2012.

The idea for this page came from a prompt I received from Tracey Clark about holding onto gratitude. The journaling reads:
Thanksgiving is the holiday where everyone focuses on their blessings, but, truly, Christmas seems like just as good a season to take stock of all I am grateful for. The list is too long for this entry, but the top three are . . .
FAMILY--I am more appreciative than ever of time with family now that both Sarah and Matt live miles away. This holiday season would seem much bleaker if it weren’t for a large extended family that is here and will make Christmas Day a rousing, happy holiday.
HOME--Having done so much work on our house this year, I am truly grateful for a beautiful home, a fabulous new kitchen, and wonderful neighbors.
FRIENDS-- We are truly blessed with many friends with whom we share joys, tribulations, fears, and celebrations. Our lives are enriched by our many close friends with whom we share meals, events, and travel. Our book group, our fellow bridge players, my blogging buddies, and our church community add such richness to our lives.

One of the articles in a recent Creating Keepsake magazine was about using calendar pages in your scrapbooks. I had this page from a Papertrey Ink calendar I didn't use this year and decided it would be a fun way to document the social events of the holiday season.

I lifted the idea for this page right off Miriam's blog. (Thanks, Miriam, I like it a lot.) Tracy and I were bemoaning the fact that it didn't seem much like Christmas this year, but in addition to the fact that neither of our kids were here, we also skipped a few of the annual traditions. We've decided we won't do that again.

For both Advent and Lent our fabulous church choir presents special music. Since we live in a town with a renowned music school, our choir director and organist (who also teaches at the Eastman) has access to wonderfully talented muscians who accompany the choir on these occasions. This year it was two brass choirs, and was not to be missed! I included the page from the bulletin that describes the two pieces they sang. Our church is always beautifully decorated. I wouldn't take a photo during any service, but I did get one of the chancel area before the service began.
We had a fabulous Christmas celebration with our family. I turned my point and shoot over to Jessie, Tracy's cousin's daughter who took over 250 photos. She recently sold her camera and is saving for an DSLR. She had a lot of fun, and I got to relax and enjoy the family. I have them uploaded, but it will be a while before I get through all of them and decide which 5-10 photos I want to use for my journal.
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