december daily | days 1-5

The first week of December's gone and let me tell you, I don't know how it happened. The days fly by so fast! I'm taking photos every day but I barely have time to do anything with them. I finally sat down today for a little bit, between baking and taking care of my little sick girl, to work on my December daily album. Here are my first 5 days.

 

I'm trying to keep this album very simple as I don't have too much time to spend on it. I use a lot of Ali Edwards brushes and digital supplies together with some paislee press goodies. I went back and added two words into the journaling on day three and even took out my sewing machine.Yay me being creative. I'm really looking forward to capture more days of our holiday season.

hello december

The magical time of the year has begun!

This year we've decided to go with an artificial tree and we are loving it! The tree is beautiful and looks so real. The little ones couldn't wait to put it up! We usually put our tree up around the 12th day of December but this year we did it today.

Buddy, the elf, has arrived today as well.

Hello December. Hello joy. Hello magic.

it's almost here!

word art by Ali Edwards

december daily

This year I've decided that I will give another try to December Daily project. I've started one in 2010 but never got to finishing it. Part of the reason was that we went to Czech for Christmas and then I never got to it. This year I hope I will be more successful.
There are so many great ideas and products available online. I loved the Studio Calico kit but I think it's quite overpriced and I'm not willing to pay such a high price for one project. So I've decided to do it my way. Yesterday I got a sn@p  binder at Michaels for 50% off ( I printed out their weekly coupon and got the album for $11) and bought some page protectors half off as well as they were on clearance. Good deal and I really like the size of the binder.

This is the design of the page protectors. I will be mixing two sizes of photos (4x6 and 3x4) with more journaling cards and will probably dig out some of my project life cards as well. I have a lot of Ali Edwards' digital stamps so they will definitely find their way to this project as well.

I'm totally in love with Liz's new cards available at her store at the-lilypad. I printed out the ready-to-use pdf sheet and cut out the cards. Easy, fast and looking gorgeous.

 

 I'm really looking forward to documenting our December through photos. It will push me to take better pictures but also to make more memories.

December daily | days 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 & 15

What a week this one has been so far! From long hours at work at the beginning of the week to a tea party with Katrin at 4am on Wednesday morning, to a trip to ER with her the same day in the evening. She has got a croup and terrible cold, now it seems Patrik is getting it as well.
The good news is that our Christmas tree is up and gingerbread cookies baked and all of us are getting into the Christmas mood. Even Ivo who watched Christmas movies with us today and who was singing a few Christmas songs (which he always says he doesn't like..).

Here are a few shots from this week.

day 10

Our Christmas cards are packed and ready to go. One thing from my to-do list done.

day 11

 I worked longer hours on Tuesday. The days are always so short when I get home after 6pm and then I have hard time to catch up with everything. I took a quick photo of Katrin while she was drawing before going to bed.

day 12

I planned how I will document this "special" 12/12/12 day in some cool way but life got into its way and Katrin and I started our day at 3.30am. She woke up coughing and having troubles breathing so we ended up downstairs and had a tea party with candles at 4am...

...and reading Barbie magazine

I took Wednesday off because of Katrin. It was also one of the rare winter days with sun breaks. It has been raining lately too much over here. The view from our bedroom in the morning of that day was breathtaking. The fresh snow against the dark hills makes such a great contrast.

 In the afternoon when I picked Patrik up from his swimming practice, we put our Christmas tree up. Both kids were very excited and I have to admit that I was as well.

I didn't get a chance to take a photo of the fully decorated tree on Wednesday because Katrin woke up at 8.30pm coughing like crazy and we ended up at the doctor because of it.

day 13

Here is our tree with Buddy on it. Note to myself: get a picture of the whole tree, with the star on the top as well..

day 15

I didn't take any photo on Friday, the day was quite hectic and I was so glad it was the end of a working week.
Today I started my day early, I was volunteering at a swim meet of Patrik's swim club.  When Ivo and kids came to pick me up, Patrik could watch the races for a little bit. He is excited to try some races in the future now.

On our way from the swimming pool, we dropped Katrin off at a B-day party. She came home as a reindeer and full of joy because the party was definitely a lot of fun. Her friend's mom is a teacher at her school and they had the party at school's gym. They had a few fun rules during the party though: running through the school's halls and screaming allowed (the louder the screaming was, the better), girls going to boys' washrooms and boys to the girls ones, using the school intercom for announcement and more. I bet she won't forget this party for a long time.

Then we spent the rest of the afternoon baking gingerbread cookies. Both kids helped a lot and made the baking definitely more special.We are going to decorate the cookies with icing tomorrow.

I hope both of my little helpers will have an easy night and the coughs won't disturb them too much.

December daily | day 8 & 9

I'm skipping day 7 now and go straight to days 8 & 9.

Yesterday after lunch we decided to go and buy a Christmas tree. We went to a local tree farm (as we did last year) but didn't find any good tree. All the nice ones were gone and what was left was too small or a different kind we like. So we ended up in a local nursery and got our tree there. We are going to decorate it sometime next week. I can't wait.
After this experience we've decided to go with an artificial tree next year. The prices of the trees are too big and it will save us a lot of troubles.

These are traditional Czech Christmas cookies that I made with Katrin and Patrik today.

I'm short of time so more details and pictures coming soon.

December daily | day6

What a day today has been! I was looking forward to get home from work and just to be with kids and relax. Unfortunately my usual 2 hours commute ride turned into 3 hours. Our bus hit a car about in 2/3 of the ride so we got stocked there in the middle of intersection for one hour waiting for another bus to pick us up. I'm not sure how seriously the people in the car were injured, it was really scary. I could feel the impact of the crash in the back of the bus so I can't imagine what the people in the car went through. When I got finally home, Patrik decided that he wants to bake chocolate chip cookies. He did everything on his own except putting it into and out of the oven. He really impressed me!

December daily | day 3, 4, 5

 Katrin didn't feel well on Monday when I came  home from work. All she wanted to do was to be with me and cuddle. So we did.

 Capturing Holiday season with Katrina's photography class.

Christmas love.

December daily | day 2

I went grocery shopping with Katrin in the morning and she wanted something Christmasy for her room. She picked the penguin snow-globe and one for Patrik as well.

It was really fun to watch kids running all over the house for over 20 minutes and looking for Buddy this morning. They couldn't find him so after I went to bathroom and saw him, I asked them if they checked it there as well. Then they finally noticed him sitting above our mirror with a cape. What a little trouble maker he is...

hello December

I can't believe that this morning we woke up to December! This year has been flying way too fast... Kids couldn't wait to see if their friend will appear. Let's say they weren't disappointed. Buddy, the elf, was waiting for them on our freshly decorated mantel. Both of them are very excited about his presence.

The countdown to Christmas has also begun this morning by opening chocolate advent calendars. We are slowly but surely getting into the magic time of the year...

Brush by Ali Edwards.