Monday already?!

Well it's the Monday after Christmas and for about the 15th year in a row, I don't work this week. Love higher ed! What I loved about this Christmas was really it's simplicity. (See the last post for my little Charlie Brown-esque tree and minimal decorations.)  We spent Christmas eve at my parent's house in the Bronx, as usual, but not before visiting the NY Botanical Garden for the annual train show and Gingerbread Adventures. Oh, and not to be outdone, hubby's bday is Christmas eve, every year!

Of course he gets his gifts from Abuelo and Abuela and Tio Eric on Christmas Eve.

What's Christmas Eve dinner without FAMILY?

Christmas Day are gifts from Mommy, Daddy and Grandma and Papa.

Here's a layout of Ethan's first Christmas Pageant

 

What is Christmas supposed to "feel" like?

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas. Maybe. What does it feel like? I don't have that feeling that kid's have anymore. Santa who? I find myself so busy and so involved in making the everyday work that I haven't found that feeling quite like I used to. I am in the spirit but less enthusiastically, though that's not really a bad thing. I'm certainly no scrooge or grinch. I do think it has a lot to do with the house renovations. They are on hold for the holidays and a little more mulah AND I was so hoping to be in the new apartment by this holiday season. Because of the mess the renovations have generated I was not in the mood to decorate. I almost didn't put up a tree. GASP! But as the middle of December came and went, I started to feel bad. So I pulled out table top, pre-lit, fake tree that I had from my single, ready to mingle days and set it up with minimal ornaments....Very minimal. I bought some fake floral pointsettias and decorated my window boxes. I put up 2 stockings and called it a day. The star is lopsided and the ornaments lacking. The winter wind has knocked them about and they are a mess now.

Christmas has changed so much for me over the years. I'm not interested in gift giving. I'm not interested in the perfection of the whole thing. I want to teach my son that Christmas is more than just how many presents he gets. But I also am not the most religious of people either. I am an occasionally-practicing Catholic. I actually work for a Catholic institution and my son attends a Catholic school. For me a relationship with God is about spirituality and not institutions like and tithing. But I do value what religions stand for, most of the time. I'm just not always in agreement with how those values are manifested. So I stick to the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. That seems to be pretty standard no matter what you believe. If I walk into life with that mantra, I think I'll be ok and my son will be too.

With that said, MERRY CHRISTMAS, HAPPY HANUKKAH, HAPPY KWANZAA, HAPPY EVERYTHING. I guess this is what Christmas feels like this year. Maybe it will be something else next year.

Art Journaling Class

I just got back from an incredible "Intro to Art Journaling" class at Portrait Bug in Manhattan. Julie Fei-Fan Balzer was the instructor and she is a great teacher. She has a laid back, patient and non-intimidating teaching style that even the person who can barely draw a stick figure would feel comfortable with. Julie said she's going to be starting a daily series on her blog encouraging everyone to do a little art journaling everyday. I am looking forward to January 1st already.

There was also a great group of ladies taking the class. Everyone brought something unique to the table and we all agreed it was great to get out of the house and spend a little creative time with one another.

Here are some examples of the fabulous work my fellow classmates created.

December 19

WOOT! WOOT! I am officially an iPad owner. I've very hard to surprise and hubby came close this year but alas, he was unsuccessful. I walked into the house with my son and there he was wrapping it up. I don't know how he didn't hear a 3 year old and me, practically a bag lady, storming into the apartment. In any case, I could tell he felt kind of bad. But he seems to have gotten over it and I've been using my iPad ever since. No sense wrapping it now!

Today, I got to a much anticipated class. I am taking Introduction to Art Journaling with Julie Fei-Fan Balzer at Portrait Bug. I packed up my scrapbook rollaway bag and I'm ready to get my fingers dirty.

December 14

Today's Reverb10 prompt is so timely. Appreciate. What's the one thing you have come to appreciate most in the past year? How do you express gratitude for it?

You know I have been a little unhappy at work lately. I suppose we all are at some time or another right? But in spite of that, I am extremely appreciative and thankful for my job, my career. I work at a wonderful place with mostly wonderful people. Nothing is perfect so I had to say mostly. I am consistently supported and when I am not, I almost always walk away understanding why the answer was no or the decision was different. So the one thing that I have come to appreciate this year, though it has been quite challengeing to do so, is my job and my place of employment. Thanks for not downsizing.

I like to think I express my gratitude daily in just how I do my job. I don't take many days off and I have to be really, really sick to call in. It's easy to call out sick when you are unhappy somewhere but I have too many people depending on me and too many responsibilities. I end up feeling guilty. I do however resist the temptation to become a workaholic. I think it's the worse thing that anyone can do to themselves. Life is about balance. Without that, no matter how much we make or how much we love our jobs, eventually the scales will tip against us and we'll fall. So stay balanced so that others can appreciate you.

Tim Holtz Tags

Well I was able to accomplish 9 of the 12 tags of Christmas. Not too bad. I wasn't too successful with Tag 1 but I think I got the hang of it pretty quickly. I'll get the other three done some time this week.

    

December 13

As I've already mentioned, keeping up with the December Daily has been a challenge especially on the weekdays. But no worries, with the Reverb10 prompts I have something to journal regularly.

Today I got 2 really great Christmas cards and they were great for different reasons. The first one was great because it was this vintage looking post card and I love all things vintage. The adorable baby on the card was a bonus. This has got to be one of the cutest cards I have received in a long time, next to mine of course.

The second card wasn't a particularly different or cool card. It was your everyday Christmas card. What made it great was who it was from. It was from my high school buddy who I lost touch with for close to 20 years. We were VERY good friends and I thought the friendship would last throughout college and beyond. But alas, life gets in the way. She married right out of high school. I went 5 hours away to college and then almost immediately to graduate school. We finally reconnected again about 2 or 3 years ago only to quickly lose touch again. At that point, I thought it was not meant to be. Our lives were, are, so different. I had reconnected successfully with my best friend from 3rd grade and she and I were great friends right through college. We lost touch for a bit, but reconnected 3 years ago and are still in touch. When I saw the return address on that card today, I almost didn't want to open it. Not sure why. Perhaps I thought it would be another false start. But I quickly got over that, opened the card and was happy to read her note, have her email, phone and mailing address all at my fingertips. No excuses now. I plan to quickly respond to her with all of my information and hopefully we can get together in this holiday season.

In that vain, I have created another set of Christmas cards for the Memory Works consultant website using Cosmo Cricket's Oh Joy paper line and Buck Naked Chipboard.

December 8th

Falling behind already, yes I am. But in all fairness, I just don't have the materials that Tim Holtz's tags require. I am going to make a quick trip to Michael's and see what I can find to make a knock off, but really Michael's doesn't carry the good stuff from his line. You mostly have to order stuff on line and I wont' get it now.

As for the December Daily. I am a little behind on that too but I will easily catch up on the weekend. I am not worried. I have been collecting what I need for each day.

Decmeber 3

Reverb10.com
Prompt: Moment.
Pick one moment during which you felt most alive this year. Describe it in vivid detail (texture, smells, voices, noises, colors).

Hmmm. I really had to think this one through. There hasn't been any one special moment. Instead my daily moments with my son have been so much fun. From the way he hugs and kisses me to the how soft his skin his, even when he has a stinky day the way boys have stinky days. And he's loud and boisterous and highly energetic. He's 3 and watching him transition from a young 2 to an older to2 and now to 3 and half has been so exciting. Right at this moment his little imagination is just so fun to listen to. He's at his toy chest making up a story with his toy train and telling friends to get on board and to hurry up. Children change so quickly in these early years and I try to catch every MOMENT all the time.

December 2

Let's start with REVERB10.
December 2 Writing.
What do you do each day that doesn’t contribute to your writing — and can you eliminate it?
(Author: Leo Babauta)

This one is easy. My commute is the bain of my existence right now. I have to drive because taking public transportation to and from work would be 2 hours each way. It's just not practical. But when you drive you can't do anything. Thank goodness for my favorite podcasts - Paperclipping Roundtable and Digi Show, Manic Mommies and Photo Focus. Can I eliminate it? Only if I get a new job that's easier and/or faster to get to.

I started following Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of Christmas. My version of yesterday's tag was a disaster. The stamp I used was just too small and I hate it. But I'm still going to keep it and share it. There has to be a first time for everything. My version of Day 2 was a much better result, but it took me hours. There were so many steps. But I loved every moment of the process and was very happy with the result. It went into the December 2nd page of my December Daily album.

Here's my December Daily page for today.

It's December 1st. Excitement!

You might be thinking, December 1st - Big Deal. I say YES, BIG DEAL. What December 1st means to me? ALOT, MUCHO!

1. It's my sorority's anniversary (23 years to be exact).
2. The December Daily Project starts today and I've been looking forward to it for weeks. And Ali Edward's blog post today referred her readers to Reverb10 which also starts today. So more excitement.
3. I sent out my Christmas cards today. I love sending out my Christmas cards. I make photo cards from our Fall Family Photo Shoot and they always come out great. Jackie Weisberg is a hell of a photographer.
4. December 1 is one day closer to Christmas. Woot Woot!

I had no idea what I was going to "December Daily" about today. But 9:30pm rolled around and my son gets his second wind after his bedtime. We visited the National Harbor in DC during Thanksgiving weekend and there is a Peeps Store there...yes peeps, those yucky marshmallow, chick shaped sweets. Who knew they had a store? And they make Mike and Ike's and Peanut Chews. I'm more of a Hershey's girl myself. Anyway, I digress. They gave us these weird foam hats as we walked out. I came very close to throwing them out last night. Glad I didn't because my son insisted that we we all put them on and take photos.

MY 3 YEAR OLD ACTUALLY TOOK THIS PICTURE WITH OUR CANON SLR. NOT BAD! WE LOOK TERRIBLE, BUT WHO CARES. WE CLEAN UP NICE.

MY 3 YEAR OLD.

So let's get to Reverb10. I learned about it 30 minutes ago and am so excited about what it is all about that I am wasting no time to get into it. Today's Prompt:

December 1 One Word.
Encapsulate the year 2010 in one word. Explain why you’re choosing that word. Now, imagine it’s one year from today, what would you like the word to be that captures 2011 for you?
(Author: Gwen Bell)


CHALLENGING is my word.
Why? Why the hek not? It's been a crazy year on a host of levels - professional, personal, emotional. On the bright side, challenges always come with opportunities to make things better and to learn about ourselves, our jobs, the people we love. Challenges come with opportunities to change for the better even though change is scary.
My 2011 word: CHANGE -  something's gotta give, right?!?