
Once in a while I still make two-page layouts that look great side-by-side! Gotta love that! As I continue to scrapbook Christmas 2010 (which seems like it takes forever because I take so many photos each year), I love playing with so many different Christmas colored & Christmas themed products. There is NEVER a shortage of it in the paper crafting world, that's for sure.

Last year I wrote about how sappy I was at Christmas time when my sister asked me & Steven help her and the kids decorate the tree. It was such a traditional thing that she didn't want to do alone after losing her husband. It was really emotionally exhausting....and I did not see that coming. "Why?", you might be asking. Well, let's take a closer look...
Because, little did I know how sentimental and timeless ornaments really are. I noticed my sister pausing and just losing herself in space as she grabbed this ornament and hug it near the top of the tree. Even though it had seen it's better days (notice, the little girl's leg is broken off), she reminded the kids that daddy had bought her the ornament when they were really young & dating in high school. I can only imagine the memories that flooded her heart & mind in that moment.

This is why last year I flooded friends & family with ornament gifts. I really wasn't trying to be morbid, but honestly, what a cool way to remember someone year after year as life changes and time heals. Ornaments are such great, inexpensive (for the most part) gifts to give to those you love that will stay around forever.

I wanted to document the story and my thoughts as I am sharing them here today onto a layout.

Once again, I played with my new Designer Tapes (now available at stores)!

I used a ruler to create my journaling lines and then mixed and matched my handwriting with the sticker alphabets from the new High Fivestm alpha sheets (Bella Blvd).

The coordinating page (right side) holds the rest of the photos I chose for the theme. It was hard to narrow them down because I snapped so many, but I thought these were the most important:
1) My neices having fun hanging their handmade ornaments from school
2) Angela rewarding Carson as the new "man of the house" the job each year of putting the star on top of the tree-just like Daddy used too
3) and all of us together (Stella & Mio pups too) when it was all finished.

I repeated the border strips of Designer Tapes and the paper tearing on this side as well, to help pull the two-page spread together.

After adding some flowers (Prima and Bazzill) and Twine, I called it a day. I'm really happy with how this one turned out and will definitely remember this moment for years to come, if not forever. If nothing else, it's a gentle reminder not to take advantage of the redunancy each year that can become of the holiday season.
