A Christmas Scrapbook

Oh how I debated about what to include in my Arts & Crafts posting.  I could have chosen the handmade ornaments the 4-H kids made to decorate a tree to be auctions for charity.  I thought about finding lots of cool ideas on Pinterest, but you can do that just as well yourself.  While we haven't gotten to the busiest part of the busy season yet, you might want to take on a new project for this year anyway.  So my craft project actually takes place  after Christmas.  Just make sure you take lots of pictures on Christmas Day and at the parties you attend.  Then on those cold winter days when you just want to stay inside, make a scrapbook page or two to help preserve those memories.

My step-mom bought me Christmas themed album long ago and it sat around in the closet until  I got married.  That's when I decided that I'd devote a two-page spread to each Christmas my husband and I (and anyone else who came along) spent together--starting with our previous Christmas when we were just engaged..  Ironically, I was attending a spcrapbooking party, composing Year 1's pages when I shared some symptoms with a friend and she suggested I get a pregnancy test.  She was right!  I knew Year 2's title would be Baby's First Christmas!  Someday, I'll pass this album one to him and I hope he'll treasure it the way I do.

I mentioned in Monday's post that I love sharing stories and memories about the ornaments we've purchased and made.  The same holds true, even more so, for the Christmas Scrapbook.  Sometimes the memories are bittersweet--looking through last year's pages I saw three family members that are no longer with us.  Sometimes it's about showing Schnickelfritz that yes, he was that tiny once but look how he's grown.  I even wrote about the time I woke up three weeks before Christmas to a puddle in the living room floor and how the plumber cut 16 holes in the wall looking for the leak (I can almost laugh about it now).

I always try to include one of our family Christmas cards in the spread.  Then I fill up the rest with photos of who we see, how the house is decorated, whatever.  You don't have to spend a ton of money either--buy scrapbook elements after Christmas when they're 75% off.  You may be able to find all the digital scrapbooking freeies you want online (assuming you have a program to manipulate and print them).  My album pages are 10 x 10 so I could arrange something and print it on 8x11 photo paper and then journal in the remaining 2 inches or add a ribbon or something.



So don't let those precious pictures sit in a shoebox.  Arrange them so you can share them year after year.