Magic of the holiday....

Magic Reindeer fly on high, when Christmas spirit fills the sky.

Flying o'er the window sills, with every Christmas wish that's filled.

Yes, Santa calls his prancing deer -on Christmas Eve of every year.

And then, they fly unto his sleighand in an instant they are up, up and away!

(By Linda A. Copp)

Cookie time!

As I've already mentioned in my cookie party post, making sugar cookies with my family is one of my all time favorite holiday traditions. Today was the day all the kids gathered at my parents house to sprinkle away to our hearts delight!My mom always makes the dough a day or two ahead of time to allow it to chill. She uses the same dog eared recipe card that she's had for years. This recipe is the best!Before the cookie making began my sister gifted all the girls with these wonderful handmade aprons. So cute! Cookie making is definitely a family affair! This was baby Hans' first year watching the festivities. We even had awards, which just added to the fun!

Hope your celebrating with those you love!

Solstice day...

Winter Solstice

Hearths and hearts aglow,
Winter wonderland is nigh,
Peace and love to all.

- Annabel Sheila My sister and her family are here! We've been enjoying every bit of daylight that we can get and took the California kids out sledding. Treasuring every moment that we have together.

Happy Solstice!

Five senses friday: pre-holiday edition

It's always a treat to participate in abby's five senses friday. Especially today, during this wonderful time of year, on the cusp of so many festivities. Lots of fun things happened this week and so many more yet to come! I love this time of year, enjoying each others company, getting outdoors in the winter wonderland, the anticipation about the new year ahead and the magic of the season. Seeing: tracks in the snow in our yard and trying to figure out what made them.
Hearing: wonderful conversation with a good friend.
Smelling: the delicious breakfast smells at a local diner.
Tasting: bits of the candy off of Chloe's gingerbread house she made at school today. Yum!

Feeling: all warm and fuzzy about the holiday's coming up fast. A week of meeting up with friends and a weekend filled with family gatherings and lots of catching up!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Visiting santa...

I was working on my December daily pages with photos of the kids with santa from this weekend and remembered that I wanted to share with you some fun retro graphics from a little booklet I found at an estate sale. They were given out at Dayton's departments stores years and years ago. Aren't they fun! Perfect for cards, memory books or mixed media projects. Enjoy!

Wishes do come true...

I was so honored when Mindy from wishstudio blog asked me at the beginning of this year to write a piece about creativity and motherhood. This is a topic I feel very passionate about. When I sat down to write, I found that I had a lot to say and I couldn't stop writing. I feel that I'm at a very joyful time in my life and I am so pleased to be able to share my story. So click on over to the wishstudio blog for my piece if you'd like to read more about how artsymama came to be. Hope you enjoy it!
We had a wonderful snowy weekend here, filled with sledding, baking cookies and santa.
Doesn't get much better than that!

A few days in December...

How are your holiday plans coming along? It's hard to believe that December is almost half over! I thought I'd share some pages in my December daily album to show you what I've been up to. I'm having fun with the album, sometimes I follow prompts, other times I just go with what we were doing on that day. It's nice to sit down each night to reflect and take a bit of time to create something.

Chloe and I got creative with our gift wrapping, using vintage reflectors and some goodies that I stashed from Silver Bella. We thought they looked festive! Hope you're having a merry weekend! Lovin' these felt coasters from Anthropologie.