December Daily - Days Twenty three, Twenty four, Twenty five and Done

It's always sad to see Christmas end and to come to the end of this project.  It really has become my most beloved holiday tradition, something I look forward to every year.  As Simone grows our holiday experiences change each year and without this process I don't think that would be as well documented.  I love that I tried some new things this year and pushed myself more than in the past.  Thanks Ali for bringing December Daily to my life.

This page is from the front of the book but I finally finished it. You may remember it from this photo.

I finally filled in what we did this past month and it looks so much better now that its completed.  We sure did a lot and boy was it great!

Simone received a letter from Santa this year and I really wanted to find a way to incorporate it into the album even though it had arrived earlier in the month.  On the 23rd, we all went over to Mary and Marks to make the Christmas Ravioli, since I didn't have a ton of photos I decided to use the first page and the envelope of day 23 to talk about the letter and then put the day 23 stuff starting on the backside of the envelope.  I totally worked!  Thankfully the envelope was there it allowed be to put two stories in instead of just one.  (Note: I found out about the North Pole postmarks from Pinterest and also got the Santa letterhead from there as well.) 

And here are the photos from the ravioli making night.  I loved that everyone helped out even Mark Jr. and Simone.  I had to leave early because I had done something to my eye so thankfully family stepped in to take some shots for me. Oh and I can always count on Mark for some really great faces!

Christmas Eve was action packed, we waited to the last minute to make cookies for Santa but I loved that we did it that day, it really amped up Simone's excitement.  She loved to check for Santa with Larry on his ipad so I was happy to get a shot of that too.  Yes she is really sleeping in that last photo, all snug in her bed.

I love this shot of Frosty in front of our tree.

The big day!  I was doing so well with my photos and totally crashed and burned on Christmas morning.  It didn't go well but what I have that is good I'm thankful for.  I added more glitter and sparkle to the inside of the divided pages, I just didn't feel like filling them with photos.

I really tried to make sure I got a shot in of everyone that came over that night for dinner and I did.

Well, almost everyone that is.  Note to self, on these really important days...make sure you get photos of yourself as well.  This is the only and I mean ONLY shot of myself from Christmas and its one I took on my phone wearing the hat and scarf my mom made me.  I really need to be better about this.  It makes me sad that this is my only presence for the day.

Anyway, the last page is always a mystery.  I like to keep the album to the 25 days but I have put in a day 26 in the past when we had really awesome days.  This year I laid in my pj's until what 5:00pm so that certainly didn't warrant its own page. 

One thing I do like to do is keep all the receipts for our gifts as a way to show over time what things cost.  I also really wanted to use one of the Starbucks envelopes I had saved.  I ended up cutting the envelope down on the sides to fit inside the pocket, I glued them shut and attached it to the back of day 25 and slipped in the receipts.  I added the word stickers on top of the page protector and I'm officially done!

Thanks so much for following along with my project.  It really was a wonderful December and I have so much to be thankful for.  Most importantly my husband, my daughter and my crazy wonderful family who let me take a bazillion photos of them without complaint, I love you all so much!

Have a wonderful New Year!