If you click the pictures, you’ll be taken to Flickr where you can see the credits for the pages. I’ve just realized that my text for Day 15  is running a little crooked (I had it crooked, and then straightened it back out, but obviously didn’t get it completely straight….)

I’m still feeling pretty lousy this morning, but:  I do have the first dose of antibiotics in me, as well as some Nasonex, so hopefully it won’t take long before the pressure in my head is relieved.

And I’m now ready to be a little more grateful and a little less irritated….

TTFN-

Suzanne

Day 14 Text:

One of the most important parts of Christmas to me is the music.  It would almost be easier for me to pick the songs I don’t like, rather than trying to name one or even 10 of my favorites.  I love them all for different reasons.  Many times, it’s the one I’m listening to right now that is my favorite.  It’s been several years since I’ve sung at church, but when I did, I usually picked Gesu Bambino or O Holy Night.

This  year I’m playing for the Methodist Church choir, which also means playing for 2 services in December.  I’m finding that this is primarily going to be a Jim Brickman year — as the songs that seem to want to be played are from the new book of his Christmas music that I purchased earlier this year.

My new favorite Christmas CD this year is Josh Groban’s “Noel.”  I could listen to him sing all day long.

Day 15 Text:

This year we will both HAVE visitors and BE visitors.  When I wrote about my perfect Christmas, I
had no idea that my brother and his family might come to Iowa for a visit!  Needless to say,
we are all quite excited! They will be sleeping at my Mom’s house, but they will spend plenty of time
over at our house, too.  We have a lot to pack into their 3 days of visit!

Next week we’ll be headed to my sister’s for a week.  We’ll get there on Christmas Eve — I’m looking
forward to enjoying Christmas with my 2 year old nephew.    He is just starting to “get” the magic
of Christmas, and the addition of having his big cousins to play with ought to be quite fun.

We have lots of things planned for our visit to New York City — the boys are quite excited!  At the
top of the list are visits to the Statue of Liberty, Ground Zero, the Empire State Building, Times Square,
and Rockefeller Center to see the tree.

Our biggest wish in the 2 weeks to come is for good weather so that all of our traveling will be safe
and without delay.

Part of the challenge was to use an ornament hanger on the page. If you look closely, the ornament hanging off the “e” is on one of those pesky wire hangers. Digital, of course!

You can click on the picture to view it at Flickr, and you can view it in larger sizes there.  (That’s actually true of all of my  Christmas Journal pages).

The text reads:

Our tree is a sentimental tree.  Many of the ornaments are handmade by a variety of special people, my favorites, of course, are the ones made by Will and Joe.  There are ornaments from Mark’s childhood, and special ornaments that I grew up with, too.  Mark put the lights on, but the boys did the majority of the ornaments this year, even getting them up high with the help of a step stool.  I miss the smell of a real tree, but there are a number of reasons why our artificial tree makes sense.

The ornaments from left to right:

Preschool Santa by Joe (it’s actually a tracing of his hand, the tip of his hat is the thumb, the beard is attached to his fingers).

Radko Penguin (gift from my Mother to me, I think….)  I like penguins.  Penguins are cool.

Will as a snowman –preschool

Tagboard candle with pasta embellishments — made by Mark when he was little

Felt kitty and doggy, made by my mother-in-law — these are some of the newest ornaments on the tree.  The boys each got a dog, cat, and some other snowmen to go with some snowpeople she had made last year for them.  They are all marked with their names.  They have quite a collection of really cool handmade ornaments from Grandma E.

Once I got down to doing this page this afternoon it actually went quite quickly.  I guess I just needed to be in the right frame of mind for it!

Now, to do days 12 and 13!

Suzanne

Credits:
Erica Hite — A Joyful Season
Designs by Laura — Custom fill chipboard alpha — simple
Font — Joyful Juliana
Atomic Cupcake — frame