Today is about perfection. We all know it can't be achieved, not with the tree, not with anything. My perfect Christmas was not about the perfect Christmas tree, but about sharing it with family.

JYC December 4th

Today was about greeting cards. I've journaled about them, but it's hidden inside the envelope, so I included a picture with it open and the journaling out as well. You can't see the journaling up close on this, but it says:

One of our Christmas traditions is sending out greeting cards. In this day and age, most of my greetings are done online via e-mail or e-cards or Facebook. This is the one tradition that I do plan on keeping. It is fun to send and to receive cards. I love seeing the obvious envelopes in the mailbox and Chad and I will both grab to see who it is from. In years past I have made my own cards, but it is a lot of work and I’ve found that people don’t really appreciate all the work that goes into a handmade card. Not that they don’t appreciate getting a card, but I’ve found most appreciate a store bought card as much as handmade, and so it is just easier for me to buy them, the past several years we have done picture postcards. This year we had family pictures taken, and nice pics of the kids and instead of getting postcards made, I retrieved extra cards left over from years past and sent those and tucked pictures inside. I will still send a few handmade cards to a select few, I know our parents appreciate them as well as fellow crafters. The picture I’ve included here shows a stack of cards, a drawer full of addresses as well as an address label list I made on excel.

JYC December 3rd

I'm skipping around a bit, and that's ok because it's my journal. Today is about advent calendars.

JYC December 5th

December 2nd's layout is all about the weather. Feel free to click on the photo in order to read the journaling better.

JYC December 2nd

JYC - December 1st

I'm starting a JYC for Christmas this year. JYC stands for Journal Your Christmas and is an online class put on by a lady name Shimelle. The idea is to put the focus back on Christmas and all the special meanings of it and to reflect on each day something different. It's supposed to help keep fun in the holiday and to make it less stressful, take some time for yourself and scrapbook and journal certain prompts for each day. Here goes.

A recap of November:

On November 3rd, I flew back home, and when I drove into our driveway, Chad and Derek came running out. That was unusual, I don't usually get such a warm welcome. Warm welcome - my ASS! The dog had just been hit by a car and then came out to warn me. He was bleeding on his head and his leg - the leg was the worst. They had cleaned him up some, but I did some more and then wrapped him up in bandages. It was his birthday, poor thing.

On November 4th, Micki turned 12! Oh my gosh, where has the time gone? She was a baby one moment, and now a young lady. Less than a year until I'll have 2 teens in the house. It was a low key birthday, she got presents - lots of clothes, a cd player, and we went out to Olive Garden.

We had a nice Thanksgiving. We had turkey and all the fixin's. The kids helped with some of the cooking. We had a couple of guys over who had been working and couldn't spend the holidays somewhere else with their families.

I actually got the outside lights all strung up 2 and 3 days after Thanksgiving.

I've taken a little break from my blog. Not consciously, but I go in phases. This past month has been a really hard month emotionally for me. On October 25, my grandma passed away. She was old, and we knew we would be getting that call "some day", but never really thought that some day would come, if that makes sense. She didn't have anything life threatening going on, but was in the hospital awaiting a fairly common surgery. It was a shock because we weren't expecting it, as she hadn't been sick or on her death bed or anything like that. I feel so blessed because I spoke with her just the previous week when she called ME. It was the second time within about 2 months that she called me, which is so unusual for her. She doesn't like to spend her own $ on phone calls, so waits for the rest of us to call her. She was bored though, and wanted to hear my voice. Because of that, I was able to talk to her right before she died, and I have no regrets. I know I would have if she hadn't called me, because I probably wouldn't have called her until Thanksgiving, I am so bad about calling people. My friends can attest to that! That Sunday morning, I got a call at 7AM on the dot (6AM his time) and it said dad on my caller ID. I knew immediately that it was about grandma. Dad doesn't call me often unless it's about something specific, Mom will call just to chat and then hand the phone to dad. I knew Grandma had died before I even said hello. They chose not to do an autopsy, so we will never know for sure, but I think her heart just gave out on her. Everyone that was there and had talked to her said she was sound chipper and happy, and I got the same impression when I talked to her the week before. I guess it was time for her to go be with her Lord and her husband. I grew up near my maternal grandparent's, and so was very close to grandma. She will be missed by many.

I flew to Bend solo to attend the funeral in Bend. She had a memorial service in Utah for all the family there so they wouldn't have to travel, and then they flew her body to Bend to be buried next to my Grandpa. I flew in on Friday and came back home the following Tuesday. It was a nice service, and I was so blessed to see many dear ones I haven't seen in ages. I stayed with LaRonda and Joe for a couple of nights, and it was so wonderful to spend time with them again. I missed LaRonda so much! She was such a big part of my teen and young adult life, and I just feel so blessed to reconnect. It is like coming home. It was also nice to spend time with my parents, despite the circumstances. Mom held up really well. When I get my pics uploaded, I will post some under this post.