Twinnies On... Everyday

Yea, yea, yea. I know, I know. What's with the Christmas themed photos?!? Christmas was weeks ago. I know that because there is only one tree taunting me with it's droopy needles and dangling bead garlands. Yep, just one. We downsized our Christmas this year, as we ONLY put up 6 trees, down from last year's 8. I totally missed Christmas here in blogdom what with all the hecticness that is my life... class parties, folks in from out of town, shlepping kiddos to sports/scouts, wrapping, shipping, and crafting. But, before we move onto the promise and fun that 2011 holds, I need to share 2 things from last month.

Growing up in Chicago, I always looked forward to the official start of the Christmas season... the bellringers. My dad was never one to walk past a Salvation Army red kettle without dropping in a donation. He's semi-retired these days and has been talking about picking up the bell, this year he did it. Right here at MY local WalMart while my folks were in town for the holiday. It was soo cool to see him right outside my own WM in the bitter cold with my brood. The Bigs spent one of the 3 hour timeblocks with him. Dad being Dad, arranged to have 3 bells that day(one for each kiddo). They had a great time ringing away and setting a kettle record, twice. The twinnies also got in on the action and spent some time with Dumpa. These memories are so priceless for me(and them through my photos in their scrapbooks). Check out Puppy charming the ladies and ringing that bell...

The other bit of Christmas ketchup is the crafty gifts I made. Excuse the cra**y photos as I took them in the middle of the night before hubby boxed them up and got them off in the mail. I made a TON of gifts this year for family, teachers, and friends from bragbooks to my old standby clipboards to planners to treatcones to wall calendars. For your visual enjoyment...

And some crafting just for me. A little Sassafras love... I know, shocker, big shocker.

Not quite sure why, but I love these Sass lines with Halloween. Something about the unexpected...

This WOULD have been my last project for All About Scrapbooks, but it morphed into Scrap that Baby's 1/15 prompt, "Holiday Baby". I have such a paper & glue crush on this Dear Lizzy Christmas line. So sad to see my LSS, my scrappy "home" for almost almost my entire scrappy life close at the end of this month. Sigh. Please support your brick & mortar stores. It's just heartbreaking to see another one go by the wayside.

Some fun We R Memory Keeper's for Scrapbook Express...

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, Friends.