December done and dusted!

I've finished my December 2014 album! Hurrah!
I followed the Journal Your Christmas Prompts throughout December - I love it. It's my version of an Advent Calendar and makes me feel really Christmassy but I kept a December Daily in my PL album this year. This meant I didn't have a separate Journal Your Christmas / December Daily book. I have made a Christmas book every year since 2008 and I really didn't like the thought of not having 2014

I am fairly strict with myself in PL and rarely use loads of photos of the same event, so I had plenty of extra photos I hadn't included. I decided to put all my favourite pictures together in a pictorial 2014 album. Simple, easy, cheap and not a great deal of journaling, but I like how it turned out. I have used up pretty much all my Christmas papers and embellishments too, which makes me happy. (It means I can go shopping this year!!)

These are my steps to creating a no-hassle album with scraps. It would be perfect  for a holiday album as well as Christmas.

1. Choose an album. I went for 8x8 as I think it's a very forgiving size. Big enough to showcase full size pictures but less demanding than a 12x12.

2. Print all the pictures you want. Almost all of them are 6x4, although there are a couple of collages or larger formats.  I printed them with white borders  and just inked the edges so I didn't need to mat them.

 3. Put them in the page protectors in order.
4. Choose backgrounds. I used both sides of the white inserts which came with the album. Much cheaper! I inked every edge with brown Distress Ink and then went through my Christmas stash cutting patterned papers to approx. 7x7.

5. Most of the pictures spoke for themselves but what little journaling I did I either handwrote straight onto the white background or on white paper strips and put into the page protectors with the photo and papers.

6. Now I had all the decision making done, it was easy to create a page or 2 whenever I felt like it. I still had all my Christmas stash in one place from December Daily so all I had to do was arrange the elements and search for some embellishments.
7. Do a few double pagers for variety

 

Here are the rest:

 

 

                              

A lovely Boxing Day in pictures

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I bucked the trend this year and invited my Mum's family to mine for Boxing Day.
 
This day has been in the same way for as long as I can remember: my nanny and all of my maternal aunts and cousins (no uncles for many years) squeezed around Mum's dining room table on a variety of chairs, stools and garden benches; cold turkey and bubble & squeak followed by trifle or Christmas pudding; no TV but compulsory board games in the afternoon then (as if anyone needed or wanted it) tea.
 
However, my brother lives with Mum & Dad at the moment and he has a very large (though perfectly well-trained and friendly) dog which scares my aunts so much that they boycotted Boxing Day last year. So I decided to do it slightly differently.

 The kids were not forced to sit at the table, although the adults chose to.

 There was turkey and Mum's Bubble & Squeak ( I decided too much change might scare the oldies) My nanny was there looking as glamorous as every. No-one would have known she'd been in hospital 3 days earlier.

There were yet more presents and, after most guests had left, we played a new board game - just us, my brother and parents.

 

Not so very different then, but I enjoyed being allowed to host this most important of occasions.

A lovely Christmas Day in pictures

They weren't disappointed - I knew they wouldn't be.
The day started in an unusually civilised way - no one woke up until 6.45. I think this is the first year since I became a mummy that I haven't been woken at least once in the small hours on Christmas Eve.

So we were happy to start opening stockings straight away.

I hate sitting in my pyjamas, especially when there are cameras around, so I insist on getting dressed before we exchange presents under the tree. I knew the 2 big-ticket items I'd bought were right so I was ready with my camera to capture their happy faces.

At lunchtime we drove over to my sister-in-law's, only 15 minutes away, for a slap-up, 3-hour,  feast. She's a fantastic cook. Mother-in-law arrived with a huge cooked turkey. My various puddings were appreciated and father-in-law made us all try Stinking Bishop, which he had discovered for the cheese board. Yes it is stinking, but quite a mild flavour.

More presents were given, games were played and we headed home tired but happy when M started to flag.

A lovely Christmas Eve in pictures

So that was it. 2 months in the planning. 3 days in the enjoying. But we did enjoy it. Lots of family. Lots of presents. Lots of food. What more can you ask from a Christmas?

Christmas Eve was a day of 3 parts - Making 178 Christingles and taking part in the Christingle Service.

 

 

Having lasagne for lunch with my in-laws and exchanging our Secret Santa gifts because we won't all be together on Christmas Day. The tradition of only buying for one adult has been in place 've known P, although the limit have risen from £4 to £10. However, this was the first year that all the children have been old enough to take part too so they bought presents for each other.

The 3rd, and most important, part as we still have 1 believer in our house and 1 pretender, was leaving our Magic Key for Father Christmas to get in to fill those expectantly hung stockings.