December Daily - Days 24 and 25

They're finally finished!! Yay!

I'm not sure if I'm going to add a page for today (the 31st). Last week I thought I would but today, having finally completed Days 24 and 25 I am feeling like I want to put the album and all the Christmas supplies away. Plus, Marley has been throwing up since 4:00AM so I'm a bit tired and not feeling like partying much. We'll see ...

Day 24: Christmas Eve

So here is the back of the main page for Day 23 which I made a part of Day 24.

It fit well between the days as the story of Seeing Santa spanned the two days. Marley really, really wanted to see Santa but we couldn't stay on the 23rd and the line had already been closed when we tried to go back that night so I decided to try to get in to see him first thing on the 24th. And we experienced a Christmas Miracle of sorts! I managed to get my coveted picture (that I've missed for the past few years) of all 3 girls with Santa. And Paige even smiled!! I love that girl!

Remember the Elf Cards? Well, even Santa and Mrs Claus have them! The DQ wrapper and the picture of LC enjoying her cone are from the 23rd.

On the back side of this baseball card add-in, I included a picture of me enjoying Greg's sister Christine's massage chair with my glass of wine and one of Marley telling Santa her wish list.

We went to the Nielsen's for Christmas Eve. The big event was a Crokinole Tournament. I was knocked out immediately (no surprise) and Greg took the Championship (equally, no surprise there!) The prize was a stack of scratch and wins which gave Greg a total prize of $35.00!!

I made a flap for the back page so I could add more pictures (surprise, surprise!) Here we see a couple shots I took with the self timer (my camera has this amazing function that it will actually take up to 10 self timer shots in a row - awesome!!) It is a Danish tradition to dance around the Christmas tree while singing Christmas carols (Aaron is Danish) so we tried it this year for the first time. It was a lot of fun!

Inside the flap are some snapshots of the evening.

Cousin Suzanne had some one on one time with LC.

Greg took a little "trash" break from the kid chaos.

Grandpa read "Twas the Night Before Christmas" to the kids.

We got a group shot of all the cousins.

And finally, a shot of Griffin, Paige, LC and Jasper in the tub. There were so many bubbles I feel safe showing in on the net!!

Day 25: Christmas Day

I decided to have a large picture of the Santa Loot on the main page for today. Santa was very generous this year and gave Marley a scooter, Paige a new bike and LC a standup car ramp thingy (she's all into things that move!) Paige was so dumbfounded at the sight of a new bike that she almost burst into tears. I thought I'd cry too! Her old bike has these hard plastic wheels that would just spin in place half the time and no way to brake. This one has "real" tires and brakes when you pedal backwards. Awesome!

The next few pages are collages.

This is the back of the main page. It's a collage of opening up the stockings and trying out the new toys.

Next is a collage of opening up the presents under the tree - the ones from us, Ammee and Poppa, and Aunts Jean and Moira.

The last collage (which I just adhered back to back with the one above) is of the present opening (call it Presents Phase III) with Grandma and Grandpa.

There were a lot of presents to open this year!!

The last page is a selection of 4 4x6 showing scenes of the evening.

Another group shot with the cousins - Paige looks positively pained!!

A shot of the kids table. As I say in the journalling, the kids had fun (especially opening the crackers) but didn't do a lot of eating!

And lastly, a picture of Greg carving the turkey. He was a bit coerced by his Mom but did a fine job.

And a picture of the adult table. I think this was the only time we were all sitting together that night. What with various kids needed attention at one point or another, the adults table was more of a musical chairs game than anything! Ah well, one day!!

Well there you have it. My first December Daily!

I've really enjoyed this process. I look forward to next year (and have already started stashing things for it!) Right now though, I'm more than ready to move on to new projects.

We are now back from our New Year's Eve party (we tend to celebrate the Maritimes Midnight at 8:00 our time for the kids) and I can unequivocably say that I will not be adding anything more to this album. I'm happy with the story as is.

Thanks for sticking with me during this process!

December Daily - Day 23

It's a new day, the baby slept MOST of the night in her own room and I've had my morning coffee ... time to blog about ...

Day 23:

Richmond Centre always has an amazing Santa set up complete with elves. For the past couple years Marley and Paige have enjoyed collecting Elf Cards so today I decided to take them "Elf Hunting". We missed the Elf Inspection (something Santa does when he arrives at the mall) but we were in time for the School of Christmas - a new activity this year.

My cover page (above) is a cut down 4x6 protector page into which I'd put the tag "2 Days Until Christmas" and then added a picture of the School of Christmas sign. It was draped with paper chains made up of children's wishes written onto "Believe" tags. That's the mall's theme during the Christmas Season - I Believe.

The back side of the cover page has a picture of the girls with a couple "captured" elves. As you can see, Paige was in her usual cooperative mood!

Next I added a cut down card protector page with 3 elf cards - the least detroyed ones of LC's!

On the Main page I added a picture of the girls and two elves "in class". Not sure what LC was doing in the middle of the circle but ... it's cute!

The back of the main page is blank at the moment and will actually become part of the Day 24 story. Stay tuned for that!!

Thanks for checking in again.

December Daily - Day 22

** 4th post of the night - to read Day 21 go here, to read Days 19 & 20 go here, and to read Day 18 go here. Thanks! **

Today was a day to get all that last minute Christmas shopping done. Buy the turkey, the potatoes, the yams, the ingredients for those yummy Land of Nod cinnamon buns, the Wife Saver and the Christmas crackers for the table.

It was a day for Grandma and Grandpa Day to drop off presents. Suddenly our tree is BURIED!! Every year we say we've got to buy less and yet somehow that never seems to happen!

Today the girls got letters from Santa.

Form letters but they understood that Santa is a bit too busy right now to write each letter personally. But he did sign them himself which was pretty exciting!

Today the girls made something special for Grandpa but I can't show that til after Christmas. Wouldn't want to ruin the surprise and all!!

Here it is ... Day 22:

I decided to include my shopping list and receipt on the main page as that was really my main activity today. Greg took some vacation time in the afternoon to allow me to get last minute shopping done plus the grocery shopping for Christmas Day. We were going to host his parents, his sister and her family, and a cousin of his plus his family - 15 in all. Only 14 were eating solid food though!! Zoe's still taking mostly breast milk! Can't help her out there any more - thank goodness!

On the back of the main page I made a pocket out of some Dear Lizzy patterned paper and tucked all 3 letters from Santa in them. LC's didn't arrive until the 24th but I decided to include it here to have them all in one spot.

Okay, I was hoping to get Day 23 done tonight too but it's pretty late so I'll leave that for tomorrow.

Good night. Hope you've enjoyed these installments!!

December Daily - Day 21

** Third post of tonight - for Day 19 & 20 go here and for Day 18 go here.**

Today I took the girls to the brand new Vancouver Christmas Market. I'd read about it towards the end of November, and planned to take the girls once school was out. It's a new thing that I really hope they make an annual event as it was really fun!

Paige was having a rough day. I'm not sure what has got into her but the past few days she's been positively bi-polar! She'll be trucking along happy as a lark and then something happens (and for the life of me, most of the time this "something" is completely unknown and unknowable to everyone but Paige!) and she turns into a wailing, screaming 2 year old!

Anyway, despite her refusing to pose for pictures and pouting when I wouldn't allow her to sit in the stroller with her baby sister, she and we had a great time. Greg's afternoon meeting got cancelled so he took some vacation time and joined us downtown. It was really nice to have him there. It's always nice when we get to have fun experiences together as a family!

Okay, here we go ...

Day 21:

Kept things simple - there is the back page of Day 20, and then on the cover page I just added the number and the note from the girls advent calendar.

The back side of the cover page has a 5x7 shot of the girls in front of a giant nutcracker decoration. Paige is sort of cooperating here. Then on the main page I added a snap of Greg and LC (to prove he was there!) and some journalling.

On the back page is a collage of our time there. We spent most of that time in the Children's area where the girls had a blast doing all the activities available (not cheap mind you!!)

That is Paige with her decorated candle in the bottom left picture. They were given the plain white pillar candle and got to pick 2 colours of beeswax to cut and glue to it.

Going around the collage; the girls in the sleigh (Paige most definitely was NOT cooperating but I managed to get a picture where she is kind of smiling. It was a little blurry though so I played with it in Picasa to make the blurring look intentional.) Next is a decration from the main stage area, the two little pictures at the top right are of Paige getting her airbrushed tattoo and Marley's Tinkerbell tattoo. Below them is Marley and LC looking through the cutouts - Marley's the Santa and LC is the bee! And last but not least, LC eating her decorated gingerbread person. I only bought her the one ticket figuring the tattoo and the candle were too tricky for her to do. She enjoyed the sprinkles and the icing!!

Next up is Day 22 ... see you there!!

December Daily - Days 19 and 20

** Second post of the day. For Day 18 go here.**

I think I kind of checked out for these two days.

The activity filled weekend and the busyness of the last week of school caught up to me and I switched off. It's nice to do that once in a while.

I sat down to lay out these days and couldn't remember what we did though! Whoops! Too much of a check out I think. But once I opened up Picasa I saw the Project 12 layout and remembered that I actually got scrappy on Day 19 and did most of my "checking out" on Day 20.

So, here we go ...

Day 19:

After a fairly slow morning of computer time, watching TV and snuggling, Greg took all 3 girls to Go Bananas in Richmond. As he is the coach of Marley's soccer team, he organized the Christmas party for them and figured since the weather is unpredictable at best, and since we'd been away the day before, meeting the team at a place where they could run wild and have some one else clean up after them was a great idea. And he was right! They all had a blast!

I took the opportunity to scrap Days 16 and 17 and then remembered that my November layout for Project 12 was due on the 20th so pulled that out. It was fun to work in "full size" again! I even got a tiny head start on December's layout while I had everything out.

I kept things simple for this day. The main page has journalling plus some embellishments and the back of it has a collage of my scrappy creations.  

Day 20: 

Another "do nothing" day. This was the first real Christmas Vacation day so I took full advantage of the fact that I didn't have to hurry up and shower, get Marley's lunch packed and hustle 3 girls out the door to do the school drop offs. I was determined to stay in my PJ's as long as possible and even after I (reluctantly) showered and got dressed, I put on some music and read a book. The girls cooperated for the most part by playing nicely with each other! Miracles do happen!!

For my main page I simple journalled at the top of the page, added a tag from a recently purchased pair of pj's and a photo taken with the self timer of me reading on the couch. I didn't show the back here (check out my Day 21 post) but I just adhered a piece of patterened paper to it. Simple. Easy. Done. 

Thanks.

December Daily - Day 18

We went out to Abbotsford last night so todays story came easily.

It's all about family!

Dave and his family flew in from Edmonton in the morning which was the main reason for the gathering. It was the first time in about 3 years that all of us had been together. Dave has 2 girls, Makenna (8) and Kole (6), so our girls had a few hours bonding time with their girl cousins before the hordes arrived. Don and Ina were given a massive doll house for the grandchildren to play with and the 5 girls had a blast with it.

After lunch Paul and his family arrived and then it was all about baby Drew. At 2 weeks old he is the youngest grandchild (#14 if you're interested) and was quite the magnet for Marley, Makenna and Kole. They all took turns holding him!

The family fun was scheduled to begin at 2:00 with a Treasure Hunt which Ileana had organized but ... all good plans and all that ... they got delayed. We waited for Matt, Ileana and their family and Andrew and his family to arrive before starting it. By then it had started snowing too! Not that the kids were slowed down at all by a few flying flakes. They were full of pent up energy and fairly flew around the neighbourhood to find all the clues!! Even LC and her compadre Sadie got into the action!

Anyway, here is Day 18:

The whole clan. All 26 of us!! 

I took some "arty" shots of the decorations on Friday night. Don and I were having fun playing with the settings on our cameras!! Some of them were kind of good so I decided to add them in these trading card pockets.

On the opposite side I included a picture of LC and her closest cousin Sadie taken during the treasure hunt. LC is holding a cookie that the kids were given from the neighbour they had to sing to for their next clue. On the main page I added a picture I took of Jonina taking a picture of me ... in the snow storm! And then a picture Greg took of Poppa (Don) trying to climb over the gaggle of grandkids that decided to congregate on the landing!!  

I knew that today would be one of those days hard to condense into a couple pictures so the extra pages were needed. These ones tell the stories of the kids; the dollhouse, the Baby Drew Groupies, the Treasure Hunt and the gang crashed out watching a movie while we got dinner ready. 

On the last page I decided to focus on myself (an all too rare occasion.)  Greg took this shot of me serving up the lasagne to the kids and then I asked him to take the shot me with 3 of my 4 sisters-in-law (unfortunately Miles got sick just before dinner so he was taken home which is why Joni wasn't present for the phot op.) My brothers all found wonderful women!!

Thanks for tuning in again.

To recap all the brothers and nieces and nephews etc ...

1 Ammee + 1 Poppa

+ 4 brothers + 4 sisters-in-law

+ Greg and I

+ 14 grandchildren

= Chaos. Mayhem. Loudness.

= Laughs. Screams. Giggles.

= Love.

Project 12 - November 2010

*This is my second post of the day. Please scroll down if you're looking for my December Daily post.*

My focus has been on my December Daily since mid-November so I almost forgot to complete my layout  this month for my Project 12 album. Just squeaking in before the due date, I give you ...

November 2010

There weren't all that many pictures from November that I felt told a story I wanted to tell. But I had some fun pictures of the girls that I knew would work. Especially given the sketch we had to work with.

The left hand side is the Fall Story we experienced in November. There was a lot of rain but also enough sunny days to get the leaves raked. This particular days was one of those beautiful, crisp Fall days. It was perfect for a photo shoot and I managed to get some great shots of the girls. Not all 3 together but ... small steps! I added some cut out maple leaves - the large one I drew on with my new white pen, and the smaller ones I added some Martha Stewart white glitter.

The right hand side is the Winter Story of our November. Just a couple days before this picture was taken I took the girls to Superstore to buy them both new snow suits (and Christmas party dresses). Just in time!! The first snowfall of the year was a decent one by our West Coast standards. The girls were itching to go outside and test out their new snowsuits.

I added a snowflake embellishment and journalled in the white pen. The white pen was a tiny disappointment. I was expecting it to be a bit more like whiteout. Instead it almost seemed to bleach the paper. I decided to use it anyway as it does look kind of cool.

Anyway, thanks for checking it out.

December Daily - Days 16 and 17

Okay, got behind again!! Surprise, surprise!!

I have a good excuse this time though - we went out of town! We went out to Abbotsford on Friday night to visit with my family. Just wait for my Day 18 posting and you'll see what I'm talking about! I need a photo emailed to me first though so .... that one will have to wait!

But before we get there we have to go here ...

Day 16:

The girls made Christmas cards for the kids in their classes today. What a messy adventure!

I knew it would be and was somewhat mentally prepared but it exceeded even MY expectations! I used to allow the girls to do things like paint, use glue, play with play-doh etc but a couple years ago I became intolerant of the mess left behind. I'm trying to soften my "No Paint, No Glue, No Glitter" policy but it's tough!! I feel it's hard enough to keep this place looking somewhat neat and tidy without the added mayhem of the above mentioned paint, glue and glitter. I'd like to be the type of Mom who relishes letting her kids get messy but I'm just not. And I'm learning to be okay with that!

But ... cards needed to be made so a mess was inevitable. Sigh!

I took some old cardstock, cut it down and then folded it into cards for Paige to decorate with stamps. A couple Christmasses ago I bought them a pack of 30 wooden Christmas stamps plus a red and green ink pad at Michael's. It was one of my best purchases for them! It has offered up hours of fun. Quiet fun! With relatively easy clean up!!

That was before LC!!!

She went to town with the stamps! Not so much on the paper that I'd given her though. Her preferred canvas was the kitchen table ... and herself! For the main page I decided to take a picture of the table after Paige and LC had finished. It was a sight to behold!

See for yourself ...

At least the ink was washable!!

After we picked Marley up from school she got to work too. She was very creative and (in a very familiar way - no, she's not a chip off the old block at ALL!!) made her project more complicated than it needed to be! She used some Christmas stencils to trace the shapes onto paper (having folded it first so her cards would open), then she coloured them in and cut them out. Inside she wrote her messages of love. Yes, she told every kid in her class that she loved them! Very sweet.

Day 17:

It was the last day of school for both Marley and Paige and they both had parties. I wasn't able to attend Marley's party (younger siblings are not really welcome) but I made a point to return to the preschool to be with Paige. The reason? Santa was coming to visit! Paige has always had an intense fear of anybody dressed in costume. Greg took Marley and Paige to a pre-season event with the Canucks a few years ago and almost suffered an injury when Paige completely FREAKED at Finn, the Canucks Mascot. Yup. Fun times! We've purposefully not planned to take the girls to Disneyland until she has overcome this fear.

After this, I think we are getting closer!

Santa has always been a particulary poignant issue for us. I'd really like to have those pictures of my kids on Santa's knee but the tears, screams and escape attempts make it not worth the attempt.

Before I digress too much, here is a close up of the main page. I made a collage of several pictures and then added some ribbon - to make it look like a present.

Kind of.

Maybe if you squint! LOL!

Of course the kids were all excited for the Special Guest ... Paige included.

My journalling reads: "What a week this has been for Paige! First she conquered her stage fright and today she conquered her fear of Santa Claus. Way to go Paige! Paige has always been terrified of any person dressed in a costume - team mascots, PNE Bears, clowns and  ... Santa Claus. Today she not only did NOT run and hide when the Jolly Old Elf came to visit her preschool, she sat on his lap and told him what she wanted for Christmas. She may look nervous in this picture, but really she is thinking hard!! Awesome Paige! Just awesome!"

Okay, that's it. Like I said, I need a specific picture in order to do the layout I want to do for the 18th. Hopefully I'll get it soon.

Until then, enjoy the season!

Indulge me if you will ...

** I have hopefully fixed the settings on those video links so you should be able to view them now. Sorry about that!!**

Beware! This is a "proud Mama" post!

Don't say I didn't warn you!!

I finally retrieved various videos from my camera (for whatever reason they don't download at the same time as my still pictures) and would like to share a few with you now.

Video #1 - Paige's Holiday Jingle. They entered in a train (the music was from the Polar Express) and then did their circle time warm up exercises. I caught the tail end of this before they broke off to go to different stations. The first time through the circuit Paige was tentative. It looked like she was overwhelmed as well as having trouble remembering what they'd practiced. The second time through she found her groove.

Video #2 - Marley doing skips in ballet class. This was the only video I was able to take due to LC's antics. It's kind of poor but ... what the hey! They put on a big show in June so I'm sure I'll bore you all again with tons of videos!! (insert evil laugh here!)

Video #3 - Paige's ballet class. They did a little routine where they are toys in a toy shop. This one shows them doing it with the prompts from Miss Katie. I have another where they have to remember all the different parts and it's pretty funny! They're all looking around at each other to see what they're supposed to do!

Well, thanks for indulging my Mama Moment!!

December Daily - Day 15

Welcome to Day 15! Half way there!!

I'll see how it goes after Christmas Day but right now I'm thinking that next year I will only do 25 days. Maybe 26 and include New Years Eve (Hogmanay as it's called in the "Old Country"!) This is an enjoyable project but some days I struggle to find a story to tell. Stay tuned ...

Today it's all about Paige. It was her gymnastics Holiday Jingle - the annual Christmas show put on by Delta Gymnastics. We knew it was going to be a tough night for her as she suffers severe stage fright. Getting her to the gym was the challenge (as we expected) but once she was there she relaxed, had fun with her friends and put on a great show. I am attempting to upload some videos but it is taking FOREVER!!

Day 15:

I included the program.

I wanted to write Paige a letter and knew I wanted to say more than I could fit on the page if I hand wrote it. The letter reads:

Dear Paige,

Your Dad and I are SO PROUD of you!
Tonight you conquered your fear and performed in your gymnastics Holiday Jingle. Way to go!
I was very worried when you froze in your tracks yesterday. We were on our way home from watching Marley in her Christmas Concert and I mentioned that it would be your turn to perform next. You got so scared you could hardly walk home! Tonight you didn’t want to get changed, you didn’t want to go, you only wanted to cuddle in Daddy’s arms. I was very worried you’d miss out on something I knew you’d worked hard for.
You are so nervous getting up in front of others and showing them what you can do. I understand why you are like that – your Dad and I were like that at your age too – but you are so talented. You CAN do it! You DO do it!! And do it well!!
My hope for you is that you realize you can be brave. That you realize it’s okay to show off your accomplishments. That your fears don’t prevent you from doing things you really want to do – secretly, deep inside! That as your natural abilities develop and improve, you will WANT to show others what you have learned and what you can do. We all want to see it!!
Today you shone! Today my heart swelled with pride and I have never loved you more. You did it Paige! Good job!!
Love,
Mom

On the back of the main page I printed off two pictures from the show. None of my pictures turned out that great - the video is better. It's finally finished uploading and I'll figure out how to link it in another post.

That's all ... got to go, the kids are destroying my craft room!

December Daily - Days 13 and 14

I guess the catch-up bug didn't stick around because I find myself posting 2 days at once again.

Darn it!

In my defense, I had trouble getting the girls letters to Santa to print properly yesterday otherwise I would have finished Day 13 then. Oh well. I had a brainstorm this morning so gave them another go.

Considering how interrupted my sleep was last night it's surprising my brain had enough juice to remember my name, let alone figure out how to print 3 4"x6" photos from a PDF document! Greg and I had one of those long talks late into the night that are great but seriously cut into your sleep time! Then LC woke up at around 2:30 and joined us in bed. Then Greg's alarm went off and I felt like I had just got back to sleep!! Turned out I HAD! She'd been playing with his alarm clock earlier in the day and it was only 3:30AM!!! Greg didn't figure this out until he was up, showered, dressed and fully awake! And LC too!

He's napping as I type - poor guy!

Hmm ... so's LC ...

Anyway, here's my latest pages for you to peruse.

Day 13:

I wasn't sure what to do with the girls today that I could put into this DD and then I read Ali's post for the 12th about her kids letters to Santa and I knew I had my story! After they wrote their letters (LC and Paige got help from me but Marley did hers all by herself this year - so proud!), I scanned them and we put them in an envelope to post.

I toyed with how to add their letters into the album without adding huge bulk and eventually decided to print them off onto 4x6 photo paper. As I said above, I had problems with this initially but as you can see, made it work! I'd also come across a letter that Marley had written to Santa earlier in the month. One side has her requests for Santa, and the other has Paige's. I LOVE that she can read now and is rapidly learning how to spell so writing her own letters and lists is becoming easier for her. I thought enclosing this example in an envelope seemed appropriate. Then I realized the front of the envelope would be a perfect place to do my journalling. Yes, even on little sleep and with the stresses of the season closing in on me, I can still come up some zingers!! :)

Journalling reads: "Today Marley, Paige and Christine sat down to write to Santa. It was so neat to see them first decorate their letters with stamps. I helped LC a little but she understands the concept of stamps and quickly covered the table and her hands! Paige only wanted to say "hi" to Santa in her letter. I had to prompt her a lot! Marley ran out of room for all the items on her wish list! She's got 4 other lists scattered around the house!! Enclosed is a letter I found that she wrote earlier."

I stamped the main page with snowflakes in 3 different shades of green then mounted Paige's letter onto patterned paper before putting it over the snowflakes. A few Santa embellishments later and the page was done!

Here is a close up of the letter inside the envelope. One thing I will say about Marley is that she had been surprisingly consistent in her many wish lists. The letters read thus (with all her punctuation, spelling and capitalization too!):

"To: Santa this Year I want a Moon Dough ice cream set. a gogomy walking pup. a Bardie video Girl. a zooles small playset. a candy cane. a justin Bieber cD. a silly bands set. a zhozho pet with houes. Love Marley and I love you more!"

"To: Santa. this Year I want: a oLivia Claus Book. a I have to go Book. aBoo hoo Bird Book. a Bad kitty vs uncLE Murray Book. a zhozho Pet with House. a Moon Dough Pizzakit. a Bardie fashion fairy tale Doll.

Love Paige"

She's hilarious! I just hope she's not super disapointed with what Santa actually ends up bringing!

The back of the page has Marley and LC's letters  on it.

Day 14: 

Tuesday was the day of Marley's Christmas Concert. Her school opens up the afternoon dress rehearsal to allow extended family to come and see it. I took the younger girls to this performance last year and Greg went to the evening performance. It worked well so we didn't see any reason to change things this year!

On the back of the cover page (since it was a solid paper this time not a transparency) I adhered a 5x7 photo I took of the program boards. I'm not sure if they were handing out programs at the evening performance (forgot to ask Greg and he never said anything) but all they had in the afternoon were huge  boards on either side of the stage.

The main page has a cropped picture of the entire ensemble from the finale song as well as a shot of the back drop I took before things got going. The concert was only grades K - 4 which I thought was too bad - I'd have liked to see the older kids!

The back of the main page has two zoomed in shots of Marley. In the top photo she's singing, in the bottom photo she (and her class) are wiggling their reindeer tails at us!! LOL! She was giggling last week that there was going to be a surprise during the concert. Guess this was it! The journalling strip talks about that and then I added a dimensional sticker of a reindeer.

I should be able to get todays page done tomorrow.

I think.

It will be about Paige's Holiday Jingle, the annual Christmas show that Delta Gymnastics puts on. I have to say that Greg and I had concerns she would freak out and not go on. She did indeed freak out but at home before we left. Eventually we just had to grab her clothes, load her in the van and hope she'd have a change of heart once she got there. Sure enough she did and the show went really well! We were SO proud of her! We both struggled with shyness as children (Greg especially) so know what it takes to overcome nerves and perform our best. Way to go Paige! We love you!!