I really wish I had finished this project before I had the baby. It is hard to capture the feeling of anticipation when the baby is six weeks old and squawking in the background. It was important to me to include the pregnancy in this album, since it was such a huge part of our December.
I'm starting to think that I'm not going to finish this album this month. 10 more days of December to go!
Christmas traditions are a big deal to me, so I had to cover our annual tradition of the Christmas Horse parade. I'm fortunate that this has become a tradition for my friends as well. After the parade, the kids gather at the house for hot chocolate/yummies and some sort of craft.
There's something special about a small town parade. People on the sidewalk brave the cold to wave & yell out "Merry Christmas" to the paraders. I love it!
This two-page spread has a mini album tucked into the pocket of the second page.
There are only 6 pages in this little mini album (cut using a Sizzix die). I photoshopped the crab and Santa hat for the front cover because I needed something that screamed "BALTIMORE".
If you've never seen the Miracle on 34th Street light display in the Hampden neighborhood of Baltimore, make an effort to catch it this year. It really is quite a sight to see. There are no corporate sponsorships and no city involvement (other than handling traffic)... just neighbors getting together to celebrate the season. You gotta love that!
I love the fact that I have not bought a single item for this album. I have a box chock full of Christmas embellishments that never get used (including these old school bottle caps from Lil' Davis Designs). I flattened the bottle caps down and gave these unused treasures a home (finally!).
I've promised myself that I will finish that pesky 25 Days of December book this month. Now that I'm NO LONGER PREGNANT (insert happy dance here), I have no excuses. So, this afternoon while one child attended pre-school and the other slept, I did this:
Day 12 is 90% done, so I'm on my way to being halfway done with this project. Who knew 25 days could take 4 months to document??
10 down, 15 to go!!
How did I get so far behind? After I posted Day 7, everything kind of went a little wonky. The beautiful little baby of my dear friends (and the subject of Day 7) was moved to NICU and I kind of lost the oomph to continue the book. Rest assured, she's doing fine. She's still in NICU (although at a bigger & better children's hospital), but my friends still have a long road ahead of them.
Their drama made me want to spend more time with my daughter MAKING the memories, rather than preserving them. We spent more time on the couch cuddling and reading. We put puzzles together and played play-dough. We spent hours playing "I Spy" and "Yummy/Yucky".
Flash forward to one month later and I finally feel like I can finish this project. So, here's day 8 for you:
And Day 9:
I need to finish up days 11 & 12 tonight. Hopefully I'll be able to post them tomorrow.
I waited all day on Sunday for the news of this little one's birth. Amy was my roommate and sorority sister in college and we've remained best of friends for the past (almost) 20 years. This is her first baby and I'm thrilled to death for her & her hubby.
The chipboard alphabet is by American Crafts. I think I own 6 packages of the white. I can't seem to get enough of that stuff!!
I dug through my old pictures to find this gem from 1977. It's my mom, dad, Great Uncle Mel, Great Aunt Jean and a six year-old me:
I went ahead & included my Uncle Mel's card. I had to trim the top & bottom of the card itself, so that it would fit in the envelope with the binding inside.
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