The Endpage. No journaling, the photo taken today, of the family sitting on our Christmas boxes - we’ve just put Christmas away this 12th Day of Christmas - should tell enough. This is the very final page of the Christmas Journal, as themed within Shimelle’s class. If you want to see what other participants have been up to, check out the gallery at www.writtendown.com which also has sidelinks to many blogs which participated also. Me, I’m counting down to when Christmas 2007 begins.

As we go through the diplomocacy of filling out forms and attending social welfare assessments to hopefully adopt a little boy, I am wondering whether next Christmas for us will be more hopeful, or perhaps just as happy with just the three of us. Whichever, next Christmas, as mentioned before, I intend again doing the Christmas Journal exercise, this time documenting it from our daughter’s five year old eyes. At that point, this blog will long be closed down, but I perhaps will share it elsewhere. I find putting away Christmas every year, as we did today, one of the saddest times of the year. I’m a little bit despondent today, for doing it.

 

Credits -

Background - Sausan Designs
Overlays -  Carrie Stephens chalk and ink grunge; Michelle Coleman - ink grunge
Dates and Staple - Heather Rosselli
Linez Alpha - Shawna Clingerman
Label Alpha - Jennifer M Trippetti
Poloraid Filter - Shieldsoft
Tree (on postage stamp) - JoDe Lawrence

Theme - Putting Christmas Away. A posed photo for this one - that darned penguin has been sitting on our daughter’s bookshelf all through 2006.

 

Template - Faith True
Papers - Maya and Becky Soto; JoDe Lawrence, Michelle Coleman; Digital Scrapbooking Magazine
snowflake lace tie - Becky Soto
Linez Alpha - Shawna Clingerman
Label Alpha - Jennifer M Trippetti
Notepaper - Katie Pertiet
Cardboard border overlays and cardboard - LindaGB
Snowflake Paperclips - Agnes Lahur

 I’m running a day late on these. I did start on this one on the 4th, but half way through, went to bed with a headache. Returning to work seems to have done me in. But here it is still, and only two more to go until all done.

 

 

 

Credits -

Papers - Digital scrapbook magazine
Cardboard Overlay - LindaGB
Notepad - Penny Springman
Paperclip - Heather Rosseli
Hinge - Paula Duncan
Safety and Paperclip Tags - Katie Pertiet
Arrows and Paintchips - Shawna Clingerman

 

 

Template - Shelleyrae Cusbert - PSD Stax Collection 3
Library card - Heather Rosseli
Papers - Digital Scrapbooking Magazine ; JoDe Lawrence; CottageArts
Snowflake paperclip - Agnew Lahur
Label alpha - Jennifer M Trippetti
Grunge Overlay - Michelle Coleman
Piano Hinge and Hinge - Paula Duncan
Paintchip card - Shawna Clingerman

Theme - Innocence. Shimelle additionally challenged us to do it in white. I broke the rules, and chose black (the odd white added for affect). Peter’s journaling surprised me on this one, but the photo taken - tonight after work with both looking up at our full moon which is hidden behind some gruesome looking rain clouds - fit the message. More on his story below.

 

 

Credits - fonts used - SBC Courtney’s Journaling and Downcome. Chalk overlay - Carrie Stephens. 

 

The Story of Today

We all returned today - to work or school. Our daughter was looking forward to it, as she went back with tales of Christmas and of her new brother - just to confuse the nursery staff. I had told her about our intentions to adopt a new brother if possible this year, and she seems very pleased. Even willing to share her toys. And incredibly worried that we only have the one Santa hat to go around.

But, like many other adults, our return to our work wasn’t as looked forward to. The roads were slightly empty, however, and the journeys there and back more enjoyable for it. And Peter came back to journal his task towards today’s layout - the innocence of this time of year.

As I mentioned earlier, his actual take on the subject surprised me. I’d expected something towards either the innocence of our daughter - who at the age of four, believes solely and angelically in Santa Claus and Christmas; or about the innocence of this time of the year, with a New Year before us, full of promises, and somehow washing clean our previous year’s losses and failures.

Instead, he went on about other’s innocence on their resolutions and our own hard work. Which, when I think about it - sums Peter up to some point - he and I have always been hard-workers and successful in this application towards what we do want to achieve. And he’d picked our daughter up from Nursery tonight, only to find that she’d already spread the startling news of her new brother around, and he was required of an explanation. So when he got home - he journaled towards innocence, and picked up the Adoption forms sitting on our dining room table. That’s possibly the hard work to achieve that he has identified - that, and the fact I may need to leave work to get my daughter to big school.

Today, he told the tale of a fellow workmate, who like many, has the intentions to lose weight and get fitter - for a skiing trip he has planned. Except, whilst boasting of these resolutions, the man involved then got out his lunch. Instead of going down to the cafeteria today, and eating a hot cooked meal, he had proudly brought his own sandwiches. Peter suggested to him that the doorstop sandwiches made of over half a loaf of bread and filled with lots of contents may not be quite as helpful compared to having a jacket potato and some baked beans in the cafeteria.

Where was that man’s intentions?

I have a fellow workmate today who is engaged to be married. This month she said she intended to go on a detox diet (the biggest trend in this society) and have at least five vegetables or fruit each day (note to myself - I must stop doing that - I eat about 6-7 fruit pieces for my lunch everyday, and have done so for years - so how on earth do I detox then?) . As the end of the month is her birthday, she has - to celebrate her month of detox - booked a meal at a curry house. Hmmmm, I said, upon hearing this - perhaps putting a hot spicy curry into your body immediately after grooming it towards getting used to such foriegn things as fruit and veges, may not give her the result she was hoping for. But there’s always hope.

On the radio today, it was announced that 25% of New Years Resolutions are broken in the first week. I initially thought Peter’s intentions - his 3 resolutions he wrote down for yesterday’s layout - a little weak, I must admit. But - and this is my dawning realisation - we have other major ambitions for this year, and whether small or large - whatever Peter’s intentions or goals - I know that of all the people out there - he’s most likely to achieve them.