The Picinic Basket: December Daily Catch Up

Phew...what a whirlwind that last week plus has been. My mom arrived, we took a trip to Disneyland, Simone turned four and here we are. Lots of December Daily to catch up on these past few days so I've been a crazy person getting a bit done here and a bit done there. It feels good to be reasonably caught up, I still need to do today's pages but I haven't taken the pictures yet.

Since I need to catch up, I'm not going to post the foundation pages, just what I've finished.

Day Three was great, a visit from Grandma Teri. We all went to the airport to pick her up.

I just love Ali's new banners, they add so much to the page, I can see myself using these a lot as the month progresses.

Day four, Sunday morning breakfast called for making something I had seen on Pinterest so I decided to showcase all the ideas I've been saving on my Christmas board.

I wanted a twill tape to separate the two pictures but couldn't find a sentiment I liked so I made my own.

Monday, Day Five saw us heading south to Disneyland for our second annual trip around Simone's Birthday to see the Christmas decorations. My mom had never been at Christmas time and really wanted to see it so it was the perfect time to take her.

I placed our Annual Passes in the pockets of the insert because sadly they are now expired and I wasn't sure what else to do with them. I like it because they have our pictures on them. I made the little confetti using a Mickey punch and some glitter paper. I didn't have the patience to drag out my sewing machine so I just stapled that pocket closed and covered the staples with some ribbon.

I love that shot of the castle, so magical!

Day Six, and we ended up meeting Santa and I swear I did not plan on it, her super cute outfit was a happy accident. He was the most amazing Santa and really took the time to talk things over with her. I loved Ali's template for this page, the way the photo appears in the words is genius.

The envelope was another happy accident, I had so many pictures to add that day and it was in the right place at the right time. I decided to add the brochures for the time we were there. I had to trim them a bit to fit in the envelope but didn't loose too much important info. I also made a two sided photo page to slip in. The shot of us by the castle is priceless.

As is the one of Simone on the carousel. The other shots are of some of my festive holiday additions to the park.

The backside of the envelope holds the journaling. I used a template that Cathy Zielske made last year and just loved how perfect it fit on the back of the envelope. The other photo of Simone with Santa is perfection. I added a simple Believe chipboard from Teresa Collins and a Nice List tab from the Studio Calico kit.

Here's a close up of the journaling block. I changed the font and color of some key words and love how that turned out.

Day Seven and we happened upon Mrs. Claus...SCORE! She was just lovely and really took the time to talk to Simone about 'her Santa' as she called him. We found her in the area they called Santa's Reindeer Roundup and it was super cool. They had actual Reindeer and Santa was there but we had already talked to him so we just said hi to the Mrs. They had tables set up for kids to color these cute Reindeer's so Simone and I both did one, this is mine

this is hers. So cute! Pluto was also there, wearing Reindeer antlers, he was so happy to say hi to Simone as well.

Day eight saw us heading home from Disneyland with a stop first for breakfast at an old favorite Chez Nous.

Day Nine was a total catch up page, I wanted to make sure I got a photo of our tree in and my favorite green trees. I will probably add another page later of more house decor if needed.

I love how the graphic worked on this page. I see now that I need to add something to the back of the Number nine label.

Day Ten, Simone's big day, Happy Birthday Baby! Always lots to add on this day and especially having a big party this year. I changed up the colors of the embellishments to go with the theme of her party, Little Mermaid. Not very Christmasy but it still works for me.

I saw the idea of pulling the photos away from the edge from someone else, I believe it was Trisha Harrison and I loved how it worked for me. It allowed three photos stacked up on the page and still room for journaling. I removed one of the lines from Ali's overlays so it wouldn't cover the kids faces.

Day Eleven, the Sugar Plum Fairy Tea Party. A super fun event that Me, Simone, my mom and Mary went to. The food was great and there were lots of photos ops with the dancers. The light in the room was dim and dark and bluish purple so it made for some very interesting photos. I think it adds to the magic of the day.

I added an extra sheet protector so I could insert the program and the menu.

Day twelve, I really wanted to add a fold out page and add in some Instagram photos this year so I did it all at once. I attached the foldout on the outside of the sheet protector and placed the page foundation inside the sheet protector. It totally worked the way I was hoping.