It's been a month since Christmas, and life is returning to it's normal, non-holiday, stressful levels. Ha! There's always something, isn't there?
What occurred to me during all the craziness of Christmas was that I didn't enjoy the demands of the season. There's a lot to do in 24 days! I've been in avoidance mode for years, but thanks to Shimelle's Christmas Journal class, I found there was aspects of Christmas I really loved; and if I'm going to enjoy Christms, I need to make some changes.
I began to ask myself what I wanted to keep about Christmas. Ha! I found nothing to throw out except the stress. So I decided I really needed to start my preparations early -- and I've said that before -- but this time I am taking action. I set goals with end dates, and I created a calendar for myself. There are many things that can be completed before December 1st. Here's what it looks like
August
Decide outdoor decorating scheme and make sure we have power for the lights
Design Christmas card
Create pages for 2007 Christmas journal
September
Create Christmas cards
Finish pages for journal
October
Get wish lists from family members
Set Christmas spending budget and create shopping list
Test Christmas lights
Decide what I'm making as gift for friends and neighbors
November
Christmas shopping
Firm up Christmas plans and meal menus
Write notes and/or sign cards, address, stamp/seal envelopes
Decorate tree, inside and outside of house
Wrap gifts
Bring out Christmas CDs
Make gifts for friends and neighbors
December
Accept there will be unexpected additions or changes to Christmas plans; go with the flow
Complete gift wrapping
Mail Christmas cards
Enjoy family and friend get-togethers
Do Christmas food shopping
Prepare foods in advance to extent possible
Journaling for Christmas journal
Attend Christmas Eve services
January
Clean everything up and put it away for another year
Review and refine process for next year
So that's my plan. I want to have as much pre-prep completed by December 1st so I can enjoy the activities of the season -- those things that are important to me like spending time with my family and friends, listening to Christmas music, creating my Christmas journal, and PEACE, LOVE, JOY. :)
If you think this might help you as well, feel free to take my list and run with it. If you already have a plan or see something I've missed or is unrealistic, please let me know.
Cheers!
Here's the last five entries for my 2006 Christmas Journal; you can view all the entries in my 2006 journal photo album. I missed about 15 entries before Christmas, but I'm going to call this done. I need to move on to other projects that are waiting for my attention. I think the key to keeping pace for the Christmas journal project is two fold: better planning and premade art pages. :) I'll give that a try next year and see how I do.
I have enjoyed the project and want to continue with an art journal. It's possible that if I continue journaling throughout 2007, I might get faster at completing the pages! :)
I can't say I'm catching up or even staying even, but here's pages I finished this week. According to my count, I have about 20 pages to go! :) Oh well, we'll see what the weekend brings.
Christmas Eve page:
My year in review page:
New Year's Eve entry:
And January 2nd entry about what Christmas means to me and what I believe:
I spent New Year's Eve doing exactly what I enjoy doing -- crafting. :) I managed to get three more Christmas Journal pages completed, and I'll add them here.
DH is dividing his time right now between two projects -- putting a wall of cabinets, upper and lower, in my crafting room so I can have some desk and storage space; and helping our son put brakes on his car. Yesterday he worked on my project; today on the brakes. He wants to get both done so he can get back to his own passion.
So, we decided that we were not going out for New Year's Eve. He had something to entertain himself that he wanted to get done, and so did I. I started Season 2 of Prison Break, and got to work.
Maybe tonight we'll get to work more on my room. It's just about time to move the computer, take down our temporary desk and shelving, patch holes in the wall, do a little spot painting, and move my book cases back in. I'm excited to get my "stuff" organized and in it's proper place. It's been a long 4-1/2 months trying to find things.
Here's my title page. This will probably be the front of my journal.
Here's day 28:
And Day 29! This is definitely one of my faves. I don't even want to admit how many hours are invested in these three pages but will admit I was up until 2 am this morning. Maybe if I turned off the TV I'd get more done? Nahhhh!
I'm very behind on my Christmas Journal. I'd love to be able to do my pages in 15 minutes, but I guess that's just not me. Take the Christmas Day page, for example. It's one of the quickest pages I've done, taking under an hour, but it's not one of my favorites. I'm just not comfortable with white space. I like it in OPLs (other people's layouts); but I can't leave it alone. Notice how I had to chalk the edges of the paper! LOL It's still too austere for me, and now it looks kinda dirty around the edges! :)
Day 26. Simple but not fast, and I covered most of the blank white space. ;)
And then the 27th. Definitely not a fast page, but I really like it. Interestingly enough, there's no white space.
BTW, let me know if the images are taking too long to load for you. I reduced the size and pixel quality of the five photos I posted today because on my computer the larger ones seem to take a bit longer to load than I'd like.
Thanks for looking.
Last week was busy. I decided to set aside my Christmas journal to complete some Christmas gifts I was making. Thank goodness I did because I was about to spend the weekend without basic necessities -- like lights, heat, computers and television!
The weather folks had been predicting high winds and possible power outages. My concession to their concern was to suggest that DH make sure the gas tank was full in his car. Then Thursday night came. It was raining; the winds were gusting, and the lights were flickering a bit. Around 11pm my computer, or something close by, made a funny noise; I decided it was time to shut everything down and go to bed. We lost power within an hour -- the winds were rattling the windows, and everywhere you looked it was black.
Friday morning came quickly, and we were thankful our family and property was okay. Still, we had no power and had to get ready for work by flashlights. The good news was that our offices had power; over 700,000 homes and many businesses did not.
It's been a very long time since I experienced a power outage like that. Traffic lights were out just about everywhere. Grocery stores had no power, gas stations had no power. Those stores and stations that had power were swamped. One station we visited late Friday night had run out of gasoline. People were standing in lines to buy generators like they were Nintendo Wii systems.
By Friday night, we still had no power and no generator either. We used candles and flashlights to light the inside of the house; the outside was dark and eerie. We shut off the bedrooms and used the gas fireplace for heat. We decided to go get something to eat, and that wasn't easy either because many places were out of power and closed.
We brought bags of ice home with us and packed them around the food in our freezer. Then we moved the contents of our fridge on top the ice. That worked for us, and we lost no food.
The power company said we could be out several days and as much as a couple weeks. Things did not sound good at all. Imagine our pleasure when our power was restored at 2am Saturday morning. We shut off the alarm so we didn't have to get up at o'dark thirty to search out a generator, and we returned to bed and a more peaceful sleep. When we woke up next, it was 7am and we had no power. :( I was kicking myself for going back to bed at 2am. What was I thinking? I should have stayed up, done laundry and various other things that require power. Heck, I should have gotten up and enjoyed the light!
The good news is that the power came back on before noon, and I started scurrying around, doing laundry, showering, etc. We managed to keep our power until after dark on Sunday night. then were were out for less than four hours.
So, for most of us, life has returned to normal this week. We still have friends and coworkers who are without power, but most homes and businesses are back to normal. The experience has given us a new appreciation for those necessities AND for the power company employees who helped restore the power. It was dark out there for them, too, but they worked to provide power for the rest of us while their families struggled without them AND without power.
All week we've been telling power stories -- the struggles and the triumphs -- another tale to append to our life stories.
So here are a few pictures from the weekend, and my three journal entries for the weekend as well.
One of the uprooted trees in our neighborhood:
I suspect this is the downed line that cut our power. The line was the victim of another uprooted tree. Friday morning these lines were on the ground. This picture was taken after the temporary fix on Saturday morning.
This is what my poor frozen car looked like on Saturday morning. You can't really see it in the photo, but there were frozen raindrops on the car.
Then the journal entries:
I got a lot done on my journal today. Since I didn't feel very well, it was calming and peaceful to spend time on it. I must admit that I'm longing to be done with Christmas now. DH took down the tree today and put the decorations away for another year. He's talking vacation, and I'm still thinking Christmas. LOL
Day 24 -- is about how we treat Christmas Eve; I rewrote Twas the Night Before Christmas! Also was to include handwriting - done.
Day 25 -- just a reflection on the day
Day 26 -- how we spent the day after. Also include in some old wrapping paper behind the journaling vellum
Day 27 -- all about sleep with blue and gold as requested.
Day 28 -- personal weaknesses with columns -- easy columns since the paper is printed that way; but it works.
Day 29 -- title page
Day 30-37 to come.
