Scrapropos

The holidays are my favorite thing to scrap each year. In fact, I have albums dedicated to just Thanksgiving and Christmas! Our Holiday albums come off the bookcase each year and become part of the holiday décor, taking center stage on top of the piano. It’s fun to look back over past holidays and reminisce! Every event and activity we participate in each year gets a place in the album, from decorating the tree to baking cookies to caroling around the piano. But aside from the activities I highlight in the scrapbook, there are several other traditions I’ve included. Here are some of my favorites:

1. Recipes With the pictures of Christmas dinner (don’t forget to get photos of everyone scurrying around the kitchen in preparation, and of the table before everyone digs in!), I always include a recipe of one of the dishes. If I can get it in my Mom’s handwriting, or an Aunt’s, that’s even better! Christmas cookie recipes go in as well, sometimes on the baking cookies page, and sometimes on the Christmas Eve page, alongside a photo of the cookies we leave out for Santa.

2. Christmas Cards Making and sending Christmas cards is one of my favorite things about the season! The card we send out always gets a layout all to itself, along with the postage stamp we used that year. It’s also fun to include a layout of all the Christmas card photo rejects!

3.The cards we receive get scrapped, too. If you include a photograph in your card, it goes in our album! I cut out the signatures and personal notes from the cards and mount them next to the photos. Every once in a while, if there is an exceptionally sentimental note written in a card, even if it doesn’t include a photo, it goes in as well. And I always make room for my favorite card we received that year…uncut. Some years it’s a whimsical Santa Claus-y card, and sometimes it’s a reverent Christian card. Either way, it’s always fun to look back at the cards we received!

4. Dear Santa The first time I let Dani write in one of our scrapbooks, I was a nervous wreck! She was writing crooked, and misspelling words, and I about hyperventilated! I’m so glad I learned to chill out about things like that, because that first page was a letter to Santa. And even with its misspelled words and crooked lines, I wouldn’t change it for the world! Aidan is old enough this year to write his own letter. He won’t believe it when I tell him he gets to write it in The Book!

5. GIFTS Some of my favorite pages are about the presents we give. Since my husband and I both come from large families, we started drawing Secret Santa names years ago. I like to journal about what we gave our Secret Santa each year, along with their reaction to the gift. And of course, it’s nice to look back and be thankful for what we received as well. Some years I include receipts for the gifts we bought - it’ll be interesting to future generations!

6. Our house in lights. It’s a little different every year, because every year we add a little something extra. I know it’ll be fun to look back on in years to come. I only hope we don’t say, “Whoa. The neighbors weren’t kidding when they called us ‘The Griswolds’!”

I hope this inspires you to start a new scrapbook tradition or two this year! Keep your digital batteries charged and have fun taking pictures. Don’t skip photographing the annual traditions “because we do it every year”. That’s what makes your traditions YOURS. Celebrate them!

Merry Christmas, and Happy Scrapping.