My 2015 December Daily

So, I never shared last year's December Daily. The truth is, I didn't finish it until well into February. By that point, Valentine's Day had already come and gone and it just didn't seem like a real good time to share it. So, I put it on the back burner and added a task to my To Do List to come here and share it after Thanksgiving this year. I figured now that the next holiday coming up is actually Christmas and everyone is probably decorating, putting up the tree and listening to Christmas music, now is the time to share this. I hope it helps get you in the festive mood and maybe inspires any of you out there who are planning to do a December Daily this year. I am! I used Simple Stories Claus & Co. for my 2015 December Daily below and this year I will again be using Simple Stories current Christmas collection, Classic Christmas. So here you go - my 2015 December Daily!

Title Page: I love the way this title page turned out. I hardly ever use calendar background paper but it of course worked well here. The photo is from a mini shoot I did with my boys to obtain a December photo for the grandma's 2016 calendars!

Day #1: This year was the first year we did an "Advent Calendar" for Liam. I read somewhere about wrapping a Christmas book and opening one each year and absolutely loved it. So his big present this year was that I purchased a bunch of Christmas books, wrapped them up and numbered them for each day.

Day #2: Watching A Charlie Brown Christmas - a true classic!

Day #3: Decorating the tree the way I like to do it - completely alone to ease my anal-retentive brain, Christmas music playing and a glass of wine.

Day #4: Jensen completely enamored with the tree, or more appropriately, the lights.

Day #5: We had to celebrate St. Nick's Day one day early because Andrew and I were heading out of town for a couple days.

Day #6: Andrew and I were so lucky that we were able to arrange a very last-minute trip to Columbus to see the Portland Timbers take on the Crew in the MLS Finals. And the Timbers won!!

Day #7: We had a spare mini-tree so Andrew came up with the idea of putting in Liam's room. He loved it!

Day #8: I thought it was appropriate to swap out Thomas with Winter Wonderland Thomas, use red and green coal cars and finish with the Christmas caboose to make a Christmas train on Liam's toy track.

Day #9: I was a little behind this year on addressing and mailing Christmas cards. I usually have them out within the first week of December.

Day #10: Liam was very excited to eat his Santa Twix that he in his stocking for St. Nick's.

Day #11: Andrew and Liam looking through my 2014 December Daily album.

Day #12: Andrew and Liam enjoying the fire!

Day #13: It's hard to see him but Liam disappeared one day and I found him just sitting in one of the dining room chairs, admiring the Christmas tree.

Day #14: I always like to include a photo of some sort of seasonal beverage in my December Daily and this year I went with a Deschutes Jubelale.

Day #15: Andrew had some extra Christmas lights so he decorated Liam's swing set which he was super excited about.

Day #16: This was our first year having four stockings hang from the mantle. All of our stockings are handmade by a close family friend.

Day #17: Despite being hit with the horrendous stomach flu that had been going around town, we still made it to the theater to see The Force Awakens on opening night.

Day #18: Liam's last casting session of three for stretching his leg muscles was today and he decided to be festive and do one green and one red.

Day #19: All the gifts were wrapped with days to spare this year!

Day #20: We went to see Santa and both boys were pretty good despite the long line. And neither one cried!

Day #21: I started to make cookies for Christmas and Liam helped with some of the mixing!

Day #22: Andrew wanted to teach Liam about the spirit of giving so the two of them went shopping and picked up a special gift for Liam to give to Jensen.

Day #23: Christmas cookies baked! This year we did peanut butter-M&M-pretzel cookies, egg nog cookies, red velvet cookies and chewy chocolate gingerbread cookies.

Day #24: This Milwaukee Christmas Eve was very traditional with a group of family heading to Solly's for lunch, several of us attending Mass and then dinner at Bonnie's house.

Day #25: Each year I do a two-page spread in my December Daily for Christmas Day that way I can include lots of photos. Beth, Paul, Peter and Steph came over in the morning to open gifts, have brunch and celebrate Liam's birthday. The poor child is a true Christmas baby. Then that evening we headed over to my in-laws' for Christmas dinner with the whole family. 

Day #26: A bunch of the cousins drove out to Madison to see The Force Awakens in I-MAX 3D.

Day #27: Liam playing with some of his new toys!

Day #28: We had a pretty mild December weather-wise and finally saw some real snow at this time.

Day #29: Andrew took one of the big boxes a gift came in and an extra strand of Christmas lights to build the boys a fort!

Day #30: I love getting Christmas cards each year and I always take a photo of the stack we receive to include in my album.

Day #31: We had a low-key New Year's Eve at home as usual and cracked open a nice bottle of champagne we had received as a gift when Jensen was born.

Closing Page: I think that our Christmas card is going to be the standard closing page from this point forward.

And there you have it! My 2015 December Daily in its entirety. Now here's hoping this year's is completed in a more timely manner. Enjoy the upcoming holiday season and working on your December Daily!