article: Lynne's Pages | written down

(I have blurred the faces for privacy reasons.)

Day 4 – My Perfect Christmas
My perfect Christmas would be spent at home . . . but we would live in a huge log cabin surrounded by snow-covered trees. We would have a Christmas tree in every room and real greenery and berries draping the fireplace mantel and the staircase railing in the grand foyer. Our church would sing Christmas carols every Sunday and celebrate Advent throughout the month of December. The girls would participate in an old-fashioned Christmas pageant like I did as a child – complete with tinsel halos for the angels and towel robes for the shepherds. Santa Claus would come and surprise us all with treats on Christmas morning. There would be no runny noses, no fevers and no trips to the emergency room. Our family would be bigger and more close knit, and they would come stay with us to celebrate the season.

But most of all, my perfect Christmas would include my father. Dad passed away ten years ago, just a year after my husband and I married, and I miss him so much. I miss celebrating his birthday on December 22nd, and I miss how excited he would get when opening gifts. I would love to spend just one Christmas watching him be a Grandpa to my girls, something he never got to do. I’d love to see him be able to give his granddaughters piggyback rides. I’d love to watch him hold them and read them Christmas stories before bed. I’d love to sip mugs of hot cocoa with him after everyone else has gone to bed and see his reaction when I tell him that I named my youngest daughter after him. Seeing his joy would make my Christmas complete.

Day 5 – Advent
This page was A LOT of fun to do! I finally got to put my stash of red paper to good use! And I love the Basic Grey chipboard!

Day 6 – Shopping
For this page, I needed to pull something together quickly, so I used Shimelle’s basic structure and color scheme (thank you, Shimelle!). I added my own touches, though to make it flow with the rest of the book. The tags inside the pocket describe how I go about shopping for gifts, and I’ve included space for gift lists, too.

Day 7 – Memories
I loved spending time with my old photos for this one!

Journaling:
I am blessed to have such wonderful childhood Christmas memories, and I’m certain that these have shaped how I feel abut the holiday as an adult. Our assignment today was to write about a favorite memory and a less than ideal memory, but I find that it’s really difficult to limit my favorite memories to just one.

One of the first things that comes to mind is the fun I had experiencing the magic of Santa Claus. Our family always opened family gifts on Christmas Eve, and then Santa would bring his gifts the next morning. I can remember being so excited I couldn’t even sleep! Santa would usually leave a gift in my bedroom – that just amazed me! I can remember one year when I snuck out into the living room before everyone else to see if he had come. I had to crawl, because family members (either my cousin David or my grandparents) were sleeping on our fold-out sofa bed, and I did not want to wake them up! My heart raced as I crawled through the living room, underneath the end of the bed, just a few feet underneath their sleeping bodies. I also remember the Christmases when Santa brought my doll furniture and my Barbie townhouse. These were not wrapped but were the first things I saw in the morning. And I vividly remember how wonderful it felt to open those mysterious packages from the North Pole.

When I was in junior high, I would play Santa Claus to my family. I would save my own money and excitedly plan what I could do for everyone. I purchased tiny red stockings and filled them with trinkets and candy, and then I’d put them out on Christmas morning. It was so much fun to surprise everyone!

Christmas Eve was just as special. I loved sitting by the brightly lit tree in the dark and listening to my Grandpa read “’Twas the Night Before Christmas” and the Christmas story from the book of Luke. Sometimes Steve and I would dress up like Mary and a shepherd and carry one of our baby dolls as baby Jesus. We’d put on a little program for the adults. I also remember playing with our family nativity set and learning about Jesus’ birth. That part of Christmas always fascinated me, too. And that is the part of Christmas that really touches my heart today.

Of course, there were a few less than ideal Christmas moments. I remember one December when I was 10 or 11, and my parents were out of the house taking Grandpa to a doctor’s appointment. Steve and I snuck into my parents’ closet and found our Christmas gifts. I think the whole adventure was probably my idea. I remember finding the most beautiful musical keyboard, and I knew it was for me. I was so excited! But then I was a bit sad at knowing about my present ahead of time. When Mom and Dad got home, I felt so guilty that I told them what I had done! They were so mad that they locked their bedroom door, got the keyboard out and began playing music on it just to punish us. I was so upset! Mom says that she almost took the gift back after what I’d done. I bet Steve was mad that I’d told, but I just felt terrible!

Day 8 – Changes in the World Around Us

This was basically a scraplift of one of Ali Edwards’ journal pages from 2005. This is the second time I have used this structure for a page, and I love it! The frame is the packaging from Basic Grey’s ornament kit.

Day 10 – Giftwrap

This was so easy and so much fun! I used Shimelle’s suggestions for this, too, and it was very quick!

Lynne in Missouri

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