How I keep up with my Christmas memories...

My art room looks like a bomb went off in it.  Well, actually, this pile is looking better now. It was packed in my suitcase so I could take all of this to the beach with me where we are having a little weekend celebration of Mary Allison finishing her finals. 

But... before I left town, I snapped a collective group of my Christmas mini albums to demonstrate WHY I take the time to do one every Christmas.  Well, ok, not Everrry Christmas, but in recent years, since I've had my girls, I've worked a little more diligently at it, despite having very little free time to do it.

The way I look at it, there are choices to be made in how we use our time.  I just choose to use mine doing this.  Because it is important to me.

Would anyone like to take  a little trip down memory lane this morning? !  Well, if so, hang on!  Cause I uploaded 90+ photos to this blog post.  So sit back and enjoy.

This is our first Christmas with thte Gabster.

Apparently it was also the Christmas when I laid on the couch and watched everyone open their gifts.  I would've never remembered that if I hadn't documented it.

Anybody remember me catching Ellie sitting there staring at this pencil drawing of Jake? !  He'd been gone just barely a year when this happened.

The first trip to visit Santa occurred in Memphis while we were there to cheer on the runners for TEAMJAKE.

Oh wow.  Remember that little sling I wore across my chest?  Gabbi LOVED to be swaddled.  She rode in that puppy for about a year.

Proof we've been decorating trees for the Festival of the Trees for years.

Ellie made this picture of her daddy entirely out of makeup!  Haha

And remember when she went through her Snooki-loving phase?!  Well, this is a package she decorated to send to Madi.

And then, I try to always make sure the Christmas card photo shoots are in the books.  I need to go back and put the cards, themselves, in there too!!

(Seems I did in this book.  I think this was 2012.  I had it on the cover, but didn't take a pic of it.

These two girls were mesmerized by Santa's feeding his reindeer live online!  Reminds me we need to find that website again this year.

Now that they're older, I like to put in a few of their own drawings and I like to include their wish lists.

Sometimes I include my own wish list too.

I have memories of December of our MMPT Christmas parties.

And paintings I work on in the month.  Some of you might recognize some of these as ones I've mailed to you!

There are reminders to myself of my blessings.

And pictures that totally warm my heart.

I LOVE pics of Christmas morning, when the girls are in their sweet Christmas pjs and have sleepy eyes.

And then, this one goes Waaaaay back.  2005... the last Christmas we got to spend with Jake.

It's a fat one.

We knew we were very blessed to have this time with him... at home, feeling good, not cancer-free, but taking a break from the toll the chemo was taking on him.  It was a good Christmas!

And to see the "big boys" then and now... wow!

I have memories of Christmas with my mom's family in Olla, and with aunts and family members who are no longer with us.

Including my sweet Poppa, who used to get out his Bible and read the Christmas story to us every Christmas eve.

Those buddies.  Oh those buddies.  I can never forget.

And I think Jake loved Todd as much as Todd loved Jake.  They were pretty much inseparable when they were together.

I love that picture bottom right.  Jake was walking right behind Todd and trying to mimic how he was walking.  This was right after church one Sunday.  If I didn't have these documented like this through pics in these books, I would never have that recall!

I still have this sweet ornament that Jake made.

Needless to say it is treasured.

And then there is this tiny book.  It was Ellie's first Christmas.

This kid was so jolly!!

And she had mischief in her eyes even then.  I should've seen it coming.

:(

I love that they all capture the time my girls have spent with their grandparents.

And to see my niece and nephews and how much they've changed over the years.  I really sort of stand in awe.

And so.... I am now working on my 2014 Christmas journal.

I'll post it on here when it is finished, but I want you to know it is the easiest one I've ever put together.  I hired a lady to sew the cutest books specifically for MoJoy, and now all I have to do is put the pics in.  I am basically doing the whole thing with an ink stamp pad, tape runner, scissors of course, and wash tape.  Oh... and letter stickers.  I love letter stickers.

I plan to upload a few videos on Facebook, on the Mojoy page.  If you haven't liked it yet, go check it out.  I hope you'll try to do your own book this year.  Just do it when you have the opportunity, and don't let the times that you don't have time stress you out!!  It's supposed to be fun.  If I am telling the truth, I still have Christmas 2013 in a shoebox, incomplete.  And that is ok.  It is on my to-do list for the holidays when I have a little time off.

Give it a whirl!

MO