Ok people, grab your favourite cup of something and settle in! Even though I’m breaking this up into several posts there are still lots of pics. I’m give a quick rundown but if you have any questions just ask in the comments and I can answer in more detail. Enjoy!

The first spread in my book has pieces from the Freckled Fawn Christmas Embellishment kit and the Ali Edwards December Daily kit. Those two, along with a mini Project Life Christmas Kit from Stampin’ Up! made up my supplies for this year.

I love the full-page papers from AE and thought this was the perfect way to start the season, with the addition of a little bling, of course!

Another full-page paper with some embellishment additions and the sheet Molly had to fill out for school listing her Santa wishes.

And December 1st is not complete with Advent Calendars – Lego ones here, as always! I used an old Ali Edwards overlay in Photoshop for the picture.

On the third I started decorating and Gabe brought home a colouring page from school. He loves to look through the mini albums and see his things so he asked almost every day to have his school work added in.

I wanted to show more of the decorations but not have them a focal point so I used a Simple Stories flip pocket to add in a couple more pictures.

Whenever I have two days on one spread I try to separate them with an acetate divider. I totally stole this idea from Ali Edwards – I loved how the transparency overlays looked when cut in half.

I added Gabe’s end-of-session report from Gymnastics and I still have to include the reindeer the kids are making in the picture. The washi tape is from the Freckled Fawn kit and I gold embossed the circle of stars and the “3”. Almost all the wood veneer numbers are gold, with a few silver thrown in for some change!

A bunch of odds and ends for Day 4 – Stampin’ Up! wood veneer embossed with gold and silver, a glitter tree stickers, lots of diagonal stamping and a small pocket from last year’s DD kit to hold a lunchbox note I gave Molly. It cam back with a heart and a note on it for me. 🙂

Day 5 was all about the Santa picture. I think I’ve figured out the timing to get at Santa without the huge lineup – I’ve manged to beat it the last two years! This is my favourite Santa picture ever – I’m sure the photographer thought I was nuts when I said I didn’t want the kids looking at us but it turned out perfectly!

This year, my sisters- and mother-in-law decided to have a girls only Christmas shopping trip. I decided we were doing a Santa picture and yes, I totally bullied them all into it. Isn’t that a great keepsake though? All the girls on my husband’s side of the family – that doesn’t happen very often!

We also went to the Bowring Park Annual Tree Lighting Ceremony and naturally Molly and Poppy would only pose together if they were crazy pictures. Someday I will have a nice one of those two together!

The see-through element here is made up of the bokeh star, a piece of tissue confetti, and a number from Freckled Fawn. I added more confetti and a puffy heart sticker to the back. Those puffy stickers in the DD kit? Maybe my favourite embellishment this year!

Another double day spread for 7 and 8. I taught a kid’s class at The Paperie on Sunday and we put up the tree (minus decorations) on Monday. I had originally stamped that card with numbers 1-8 but ended up attaching the big gold 8 instead and just stamping some sentiments.

 I had a chance for some fun with Lori on the ninth and it took us forever to get a decent picture of the two of us – I’m not sure we ever succeeded! I pulled an Ali Edwards and journaled some notes to M&G with different size pens on the large paper page – I love how it looks! To highlight the “9” I coloured it with my red Wink Of Stella pen and doodled with Sakura’s Clear Stardust Gelly Roller.

Whew! Are you tired of pictures yet? I  hope not! Tomorrow I’ll have some more of the album, including my two favourite spreads of the year!

Cheers!

S.