The Final Post

for JYC 2013.  At last it's done, I had the idea of counting up the minutes the journal covers to complete the journal.. and it also helps to use up those number stickers we all have left over!

And here's the completed journal, lumpy as ever, but i always feel a sense of achievement once it's done for another year.

I just have a couple of 12x12 pages to do to go into the kids scrapbooks, then I'm calling Christmas 2013 complete.

Remember next Christmas

Every year, after the decorations are put away something always pops into my head that I need to remember to let things go a little more smoothly next year.

This year the list included not to make many more cards (as I have so many still in the loft) not to buy more Christmas crafting stash (boo hoo) not to buy so much cream (lots got thrown away this year) or a Christmas pudding (there is one in the cupboard) and NOT to move the gingerbread house after decorating it simply to take its photo (that led to a major disaster that I was blamed for!)

A Family Treat

...is always to go to the pictures on Christmas Eve.  When the kids were small it would help to encourage them to get the chores finished!

This year it was the second installment of The Hobbit, and enjoyed by all of us.  Only two days of the 2013 journal left to post.

Then and Now

The prompt for the 3rd of January was all about juxtaposition, comparing then and now.  I knew I wanted to include something about the idents used between programmes on TV, as they were always the sign that Christmas was close when I was a child.  Today they appear for a much longer period, but I managed to get an image of one from the past and this year's from BBC2 for my page.

3 more pages, then I'm done for another year.

The Perfect Gift

Looking back to Day 20 of my journal, when i wondered whether Kevin would enjoy his new present, I made my page for Jan the 2nd the follow up.

Of course he loved his gift (a wood turning lathe) and was really totally surprised by it.  He has spent a good few hours in the garage playing with bits of old pallet, and looking online for tools to go with it.  These turned mushrooms (along with magic wands for the kids) are among his earliest turning attempts.

New Year, New Baby

My friend from work had her baby on New Year's Day, he arrived 10 days late, but I'm sure he will make for a perfect new year for her and her husband.

As I don't want to post his photo online I have blurred his little face, but take my word for it, he is gorgeous, and made for a beautiful page in my journal!

New Years Eve

My best friend from school lives in a very large and truly beautiful late Victorian house in Nottingham, complete with gothic stonework, stained windows and original plaster ceilings throughout.

 We were glad to be invited to a New Year party and to stay over for the night, so I had to include pictures in my journal.

I snapped this photo of the girls in the hall but plan to put others into my 12x12 albums too.

A review of 2013

I love making this page for my journal, it reminds me of the year just gone as I trawl through my photos.  For the past few years I have simply printed one photo for month (I say simply, it can be hard to choose) edit the date onto each one, and then add brief journalling.

As illness made up 6 months of my year it had to feature on this page, I'm hoping for a better 2014.

29th December

Last day of the Christmas holiday, it has flown by so quickly.  This day in the journal was set aside as a day to catch up, or add any missing events from the Christmas season.  I had noticed the huge number of festive jumpers on sale this year, and had taken a photo in Primark back in October when they began to sell them.

This was the perfect chance to add it to my journal, especially as I had bought a couple of the jumpers for Harry and Katie.
Not looking forward to the morning and having to take notice of the alarm.

John's Birthday

We have a couple of birthday over the Christmas holiday, my brother's on the 23rd, and John on the 28th, ideal for that post Christmas lull.

We went up to Leicester to eat, drink and be merry, with lots of silly games.

With Thanks

My cousin Kim (who does read this blog) is an amazing embroiderer... I remember going to stay with her in London when we were in our mid teens and she was stitching an incredible piece back then.

She still sews to an incredible standard, and sent me this beautiful card this year, I took a photo as I thought it really did deserve a place in the journal!

Boxing Day

A photo from our family get together at the pub, Kev and I (looking a bit Howard and Hilda-ish) in festive red.

Christmas Day

Happy New Year everyone, and here is my page for one week ago...
As we managed to get photos of us all first thing in the morning before opening our presents, I decided to squeeze all 5 onto a page for Christmas day.

Funnily enough, Hannah knew photos were going to be taken, and (vain thing that she is) applied some makeup before coming down :)  The rest of us just look rough!

Christmas Eve

When the children were smaller, and so was the house, they were less untidy and I was generally ready for Christmas by the end of the 23rd of December.  Alas, this hasn't been the case for a number of years now, and that restful Christmas Eve that we used to enjoy is just a hazy memory.  This year was no different, and the day was made even more manic by the broken fridge freezer that meant food littered the kitchen and garage until it could be safely stowed once the new one had been delivered, along with all the other jobs on my to-do list.

The theme for the day was all about how busy it was... we did get there in the end, but only just:-)

Stormy Weather

As we have had a very stormy autumn and winter so far, I thought this deserved to go into the journal.  Luckily, we have not been affected, but on the 23rd, as Hannah headed home from Derby, I did worry as many train services were cancelled due to trees and debris on the line.

The journey that normally takes around an hour took around 3, for she had to wait much longer than usual in Birmingham; the station there was mayhem as people tried to head home for Christmas further south, where the storm was far more severe.

Couldn't resist a picture from the MET with the isobars and record low pressure reported.  Once a geek, always a geek.

Where did that go?

My last post was for the 21st of December, and now in the blink of an eye the main Christmas celebrations are done, and I have my journal to catch up with.
I got to the 23rd before Christmas day, and then stalled as we just had fun together.  This morning after a couple of hours sorting and printing my photos, and I'll be ready to set off again.

I went off the prompt for the 22nd as i had this silly photo of Harry with these candles, reminding him of his favourite Two Ronnies sketch.

Off to a birthday party this evening, the fun never seems to stop!

A snapshot

This is always one of my favourite pages in my Christmas journal, it shows the house, family etc as it really is, a bit messy, chaotic and in all the years I've been doing the journal, never ready for Christmas!

The chaos was added to on Saturday morning by the American fridge freezer breaking down, being unable to get an engineer out to fix it, and searching online for one that could be delivered before Christmas.  We managed to farm out some of the meat to my sister's freezer (which she had emptied of its turkey to give it time to defrost) and our new one should arrive Christmas Eve.  As we kept our fingers crossed it did arrive in the nick of time.

Days 19 and 20

On the 19th we had a Christmas dinner at work, and Secret Santa gifts. The cost limit for the gift is £5, a bit tricky to pick up anything nice, so I usually make  a little something.  This year it was embroidered felt tree decorations, hope the recipient liked them.

And so, into the 20s... Christmas is really near! Prompt today was about a gift bought, and the thoughts behind it before the 25th, so I discussed how hard it is to buy for my husband... are all middle aged men so difficult?

I hope I've got it right this year:-) ; time will tell.

The Start of the Holiday

From today I need not worry about keeping up to date with my journal, as I am on holiday until the 6th of January.
The prompt for day 17  was to focus on the things I still have to do before the big day.  The idea of this is to help those who take part not to worry about the 'to do' list, and to decide what really can be done without to remove the pressure.  I'm not feeling too much pressure this year as it's my sister's turn for Christmas dinner!

I went off prompt for day 18, as I had a photo I had taken in town of the christmas lights I wanted to include.

Happy Winter Solstice, summer is on its way!

Days 15 and 16.

Kevin has spent many hours in the garage this year making things from wood after I bought him a bandsaw for his 50th birthday.
He fashioned many of these cute robins as gifts for the family, so I snapped a picture before they were all sent to their new homes.

Christmas entertainment was the prompt for the 16th.  After writing in previous journals about the music we like to play, I recorded my thoughts on a favourite Christmas film.  It went out of favour for a few years, probably as it is filmed in black and white, but in a recent poll It's a Wonderful Life has come at the top of the list for the Christmas film of choice. With an angel, love story, happy family life, a beautiful house, and even a banking story that brings it right up to date, what's not to like?

Last day at work today.  Hooray.