December Daily: The Blues Hit

It was bound to happen - the December/Christmas blues. When all the decorations are down, the parties over, presents unwrapped, and reality sneaks back in. This year the blues hit me especially hard because my parents are moving across the country in a month. My dad landed a huge promotion and will be Dual Director of Engineering for two Marriott properties in Washington D.C. I'm beyond proud of him, but my heart aches just thinking of living so far from my family for the first time in my life. All that to say, I let my December Daily pages and posts slide a bit, but I am committed to finishing. Even more now I want to document this month with my family, since I have no idea what next December will bring.`I'm still waiting to collect photos for a couple pages, but I wanted to go ahead and share what I have. Look for the rest of the month soon!

December Daily Days 14-16

Weekdays when Josh is at work are pretty hum-drum around here. Wednesday the boys found the Play-do stash and remembered how much they loved squishing and playing with it, especially Cai! I love it when they find something creative to do instead of just begging to watch TV. Some days I'm tempted to toss the TV off our balcony! That might cause a problem in my marriage, though... Josh does love his movies, and Cai certainly inherited his daddy and grandpa's passion for the screen!

Thursday I forgot, again, to take any pictures. Cai talked about Santa a lot, he doesn't understand that Christmas is still days away! He thinks, when he hears a song or see Santa on TV, that he's coming NOW! Silly boy!

Friday I took the boys to a fellow Mops' mom's house for a Jesus Birthday party. We had a blast! I wish our group had been able to get together more this fall. 

December Daily Days 9-13: Catching Up

Well, I knew it would happen eventually. Life took over, I even forgot to take pictures a few days, and now I'm playing catch-up. Oh well, the pages are done, memories recorded, and all is well. I'm determined not to stress about this project!! With no further ado, here are my pages for December 9-13.

December Daily Day 8: The Good Day

Although it often seems that life with three little boys produces more stressful days than good ones, I truly treasure the happy, relatively peaceful days. Today all three boys slept at the same time in the afternoon, allowing mommy to sneak in a little nap, too, which hugely contributed to my happy feelings about the day! I also enjoyed snapping some (okay, a lot of) photos of Riah, he is so cute and photogenic! I love his happy smiles, they always brighten my day.

I wish I could create a (paper/hybrid) December Daily album like some of the ones I see linked up to Ali Edwards' blog posts, that are so incredibly creative and beautiful. Totally works of art. One year I will, I promise myself! This year, though, I'll be happy just to take my photos and tell a little story in my simple digital album - I'm proud of myself for just doing it!

December Daily Days 6-7, or, The Humdrum Days

The days when Josh is gone to work from 4am to 7:45pm tend to drag on and on and blur together. The boys act up worse when daddy's gone, and you can't even imagine the number of diapers I change every day. It's hard to find something "special" to journal about on these days, but I'm trying to remember that December Daily isn't about finding something special every day, it's about capturing what really happened - boring bits and all! So here's days six and seven!

December Daily Days 4-5

Can't believe I'm actually caught up/keeping up! It's helped tremendously having my layouts done in advance, then I just need to pick a photo(s) and think about what story I want to tell. For Day Four, I journaled about my trip to the mall with Cai. I can't remember the last time I did something with just him, and it was a very fun, special time!

Day Five was pretty low-key, since Josh went back to work and I'm stuck at home with the kids. I told the story of Cai drinking hot chocolate (possibly for the first time, I'm not sure) and me baking Andes mint-chip cookies. Which really deserves its own page, since I bake so rarely! I have lofty plans to do more baking this holiday season, Cai loves to "help." So maybe more yummy pictures will pop up in future December Daily pages!

December Daily Days 1-3

Better late than never is my motto, as you've no doubt gathered if you've ever read my blog! Last night I finally had a moment to add photos and journaling to my first three December Daily pages. I shared the foundation pages here with full credits. Actually I'm still missing a photo for one day, since I snapped it on my mom's camera, which is currently at her house. But I'm gonna go ahead and post it and I'll add the missing photo later. That's the beauty of Photoshop, right?!
So without further ado, here's my December Daily pages 1-3:

Day 1 - Today wasn't all happy feelings, I really struggled with being depressed about our financial situation this Christmas. I want to make sure I don't sugarcoat our daily lives in this album, so I shared a little of the depressing part of the day, but also tried not to focus on that. I forgot to snap a picture, so I included the instructions and number sheet from my advent project, and the MOPS logo since that was a big part of the day.

Day 2 - Obviously I'm still missing a photo, but imagine a cute shot of my little 16-month-old shutterbug Avyn! We went to his surgery follow-up appt today, and the doctor prescribed Singulair to help with his constant postnasal drip. We go back in three weeks to see if that helps and to check his hearing. There is some concern that he may have hearing loss, given his speech delay. I'm trying not to focus on that and what it might mean for his/our future. Enjoyed a sweet evening with my hubby finishing the advent project, each day the boys get to open a box and discover a fun activity to do with mommy (and daddy when he's home).

Day 3 - Today's big event was our Sunday School class Christmas party! It was so fun to get all dressed up and go out without the boys! I even wore a pretty dress, which is impossible to do with a nursing baby usually. The boys loved having Miss Christi babysit, and she said they did wonderfully. I'm sure most of my pictures this month will feature the boys, so I wanted to make sure and include these photos of Josh and I.

My December Daily Digi Album, part 1

So who else is diving into the December Daily madness this year?! If you don't know what December Daily is all about, check out this post from Ali Edwards, the Dec Daily queen. She has tons of great information on her site about December Daily, and plenty of beautiful inspiration! I'm doing mine a little differently, going all-digital since I simply can't find the time to make one of those gorgeous paper or hybrid books (one year I will!!!). I'm designing each page ahead of time, so all I have to do each day is snap a few photos, drop them in the photo spots, and journal about our day. I chose Sabrina's Creations 25 Days of Christmas template set, available at Mscraps - check it out:

How beautifully simple is that?! I love the blocked design. I couldn't pick just one kit to use, though. I adore Christmas kits, so I chose several! They don't necessarily match, but I don't particularly care. Here's the pages I've completed so far (well, ready for photos and journaling), along with the kits I used.

First four pages created with He's Coming! kit by Studio Basic:

Pages 5-8 created with Sabrina's Creations 25 Days of Christmas kit:

Pages 9-12 created with Christmas Morning kit by Valorie Wibbens and Creations by TinaMarie:

That's as far as I've gotten so far, today I'm working on finishing up the rest of the album, adding my photos and journaling to day 1, and whipping up a little hybrid Advent project to do with my boys this month. I'll be back here later to share all that! In the meantime, if you're doing any kind of December project, I would love to see it. December Daily, an Advent calendar or project, or anything else to help make, capture, and record your memories this month!