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We had a whirlwind last few days of December, first few days of January. We spent New Year’s in and around Edinburgh, Scotland and then mother nature liked us there so much that we ended up with a cancelled flight because of high winds. We did make it back home safely the following, evening there.

I have decided to participate in Project Life again this year, but I will probably not include any of my pages because it kind of feels like my own personal journal. With photos, even! I’ll try to share resources if I find anything that I haven’t seen widely published elsewhere.

I have some interesting, exciting and time consuming changes happening in the next year and I’m hoping to blog a little more frequently than once every few weeks.

Late fall and winter is my favorite time in Germany.

Especially the last week of November and the first few weeks of December because the Christmas Markets are in full swing. They’ll continue until this Friday, but today was the last weekend day of Christmas Markets. And I’m a little sad. Shops are closed on Sunday and having the alternative of going to a Christmas Market instead was (or at least has been for the past 4 weeks) a great option.

This past week, we headed to the beautiful town of Erfurt, which has one of the nicest Christmas Markets in Germany.

What is so awesome about this particular Christmas Market is it’s size. This, I believe, is the main Christmas Market for the town, but there were three or four smaller ones on the 15 minute walk from our hotel to this place. We took that walk every evening because there’s nothing like a huge ferris wheel in front of a huge cathedral. There were so many food options, but I was particularly drawn to the fresh waffles — I had them every night! Maybe it’s a good thing there won’t be any more Christmas Markets in my immediate future.

We were fortunate to have a great view from our hotel room. I realized that when we stay in hotels we often end up with a room facing a brick wall, or in a city where all buildings are about the same height. Our hotel is significantly taller than the 4-5 story buildings in Erfurt, so we could see out and over. My son loved it.

Who am I kidding, we all loved it.

Less than a week until Christmas, I really should share my DD progress (I’m up to page/day 16 – not too bad!)

Christina posted a “December Confessions” post and I felt like joining in on the fun.

1. I take my coffee with half coffee, half milk and the equivalent of one packet of sugar. I feel weird about this, so few people know it.
2. I’ve had several journals throughout my life and have lost a number of them. There are two or three that I wish I still had:
1. One from when I was 7 and on vacation in the Philippines and drew lots of pictures and wrote lots of stories.
2. When I was 15, I moved overseas and left a notebook in the attic of my house that my parents were renting to other people. A few months later a hurricane hit and the house was destroyed and I always think about that notebook and wonder if someone found it and read it.
3. My junior year of college was an amazing year. I kept a free calendar from the school and wrote what I did every day in the little squares provided. I’d love to look back on that calendar again.
3. I think Kate Middleton is the world’s best dresser.
4. Though I do really miss my family, shopping at certain stores in the states, and some of the conveniences associated with living in my own country, I absolutely love December in Germany.
5. I wish I had the guts to quit facebook.
6. I wish I had the guts to share more of myself, my work and other things with other people. Both in real life and on the internet.
7. I really love traveling, but wow it’s so much harder with a one-year old and without a car.
8. The car thing, that’s one thing that’s brought me sadness recently. For those that don’t know, I moved to Germany shortly after finding out I was pregnant. We don’t have a car here and the train transportation is awesome. I absolutely love travel by train. But, it’s so hard to do that with a toddler that I just want a car. I also want a car because I love singing at the top of my lungs and I can’t do that on the train or in my apartment.
9. Sometimes all I really want is a fresh-brewed iced tea with lots of ice.

I’m so embarrassed.

My holiday decorations are limited to: one little santa man made out of wood, Colmar (my elf on the shelf), two advent calendars (both chocolate, thank you very much) and a snowman thermometer still in it’s wrap.

I took lights out yesterday and put them around the living room until my son started getting upset that he couldn’t play with them.

I have this theory that people (average people) don’t need as much space in cities because there’s so much to do around town. The inverse is that people need more space outside of cities because most (or at least more) activities are at home. So, I’m blaming my lack of decorations IN my home on the fact that there is so much OUT of my home. That makes sense, right? Oh, well. It’s going to have to. We aren’t getting a tree for another week and the decorations are just going to have to slowly make their way out.

These pictures are just from various local Christmas Markets.

I’ve been a little hesitant to post this because I’m waiting for some supplies to come in so I can add the finishing touches. I decided to go ahead and share because I love seeing everyone’s work.

So here are the first 5 days of my DD – as of this moment. I have the before picture, then the after picture with the number dividers removed for the picture:

Day 1:I wonder if anyone else, who started on December 1, feels the same way. All this anticipation to get things started and then all of the sudden it’s here and you realize… there’s no thing really Christmas-y to mention. So, that’s why this day is focused on the two things we do start on December 1: Colmar the elf, our advent calendar and Christmas PJs. The only things that would give any indication that it’s Christmas season in our house. There’s journaling behind the top two photos.

Day 2:

The only thing more difficult than not having anything worth talking about on December 1, is following that same pattern for December 2. Fortunately, my H’s Christmas Party for work was on the second, so I’ll be adding a little to the page about this. And, unintentionally there’s a lot of Santa going on on this page. The picture on the top right is my son posing, and it opens up to two more pictures of him and his funny one-year old pictures.

To be perfectly honest, I don’t mind that there’s not much going on during these days. It’s the reality of our holiday season. Things don’t get exciting around here for a while. So, if it’s just a few pictures and days of my son in Christmas PJs, so be it. I’m sure he won’t allow me to dress him like that forever!

Day 3: I didn’t really care for this paper (it didn’t go with the rest of the papers I ordered) and I really didn’t care for the foundation set-up. So, as you can see, I moved things around a lot. On this Saturday we went to the local Christmas Market and it was pretty amazing. There was a ton going on that day visually. I wanted to include as many pictures as I could. I realized looking back on years past that even though these types of pages might not be my favorite visually, I love the content. I’m not going to live here forever and I know I’ll appreciate getting small glimpses of our down town area.

Day 4: The left side was totally inspired by Kinsey. The right side is just, in my opinion, an awesome picture. I have more things I want to add for this day and I want to do it with a 4×8 add-on. See, we had lots of food on the 4th and I need to capture more of it. I’m also going to find away to tie the left side to the right side when I embellish the right side.

Day 5:

This was a KP sketch from a class I took. I have journaling and a title to add, but I will do that later. This is one of those pages that I made KNOWING that I wanted to discuss the ornaments I make every year. Since I created this page in the middle of November there was no way I could have foreseen that I wouldn’t really work on the ornaments at all. When I looked at the page, I had plans to write about the ornaments I had made in the past (the reason I was set on it is because the paper looks like cross-stitch or embroidery patterns and reminds me of my ornaments). Then, on a whim, I gave my son some paper and markers and let him have fun and the page went from what I had planned, to what you see above.

Looking at the above pages I realize I need to add even more of my H and myself in here. I know I will, but I am ok with how much of us is in here now. Part of my goals with this for 2011 was to capture the holiday season living abroad and with a one-year old and I think I’ve done that much.

I’ll share my progress again probably in a week’s time.

What a great weekend!

One thing I love about Germany: The Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Market). In bigger cities, the central area will usually have one (or more) running for several weeks leading up to Christmas. Even in smaller towns there is usually a Christmas Market for one day to a week. We’re fortunate to live in a very populated area with lots of cities, so there are more than enough Christmas Markets to visit within a short train ride.

All last week I couldn’t make up my mind on which Christmas Markets we would visit this past weekend. Then we woke up Saturday to lots of rain. When it finally seemed to let up, we headed out quickly to our own city’s center (we had errands to run, too) and made a quick pass through our Weihnachtsmarkt. First, I was surprised by this giant ferris wheel… I don’t remember it last year! (I didn’t ride it, though. As you can tell, the weather was bad.)

All throughout the downtown area are these huge light displays. The are each designed for a different area of Europe and made simply of Christmas lights. It’s really impressive at night.

We rushed through our errands and then about three of the Christmas Markets to beat the rain, but I had to stop for one of these fried doughs of deliciousness. It’s similar to an elephant’s ear or beaver’s tail. Not sure what the official name is here, but my H and I refer to it as Ungarns. Which is wrong. These are a Hungarian food of some sort and the German word for Hungary is Ungarn, so the stands always say Ungarn and that’s what we call them.

After this we made it home to plan our Sunday.

Which involved taking the train over to Duesseldorf. I love Duesseldorf. It’s on the Rhein River and there is a huge walkway along the Rhein. The Altstadt area has great restaurants. The Ko has great shopping. It really can’t be beat. And Christmas-time it’s only better. All the spaces that are opened throughout the year are filled with Christmas stands.

For Duesseldorf, our theme was FOOD!

We ate steak sandwiches, bratwurst, potato pancakes and then stood mesmerized as two ladies made proffiteroles (then ordered some and ate them in 10 seconds flat).

I’m already planning the Christmas Markets for next weekend.

How was your weekend?

First, only one day into the Reclaim Time class at BPC and I am so, so, so glad I signed up for this class. I had a bit of a mishap yesterday when I tried to print the handout before my son’s nap. I had about a 5 minute window to do it and the computer jammed and in my hurry to fix it, I broke it! So is my luck.

You’d barely know it’s the holiday season if not for: 

This is kind of what the photo layout will be for the left side of my album. The top two pictures will each open up separately to say:

(Left photo): Colmar the Elf arrived this morning. He wanted to make it easy for W to spot him, so he “hid” right next to one W’s favorite sites, the digital frame. When W woke up, I explained to him that Colmar is going to visit us every day until Christmas and report back to Santa directly. W listened attentively and the screamed when I put him down. I guess he’s not so concerned with what this “Santa” fellow thinks.

(Right photo): With December, our chocolate advent calendar starts. This year Grandma Lola brought it while she was visiting. It’s the kinder-egg calendar so that means we get both chocolate and a holiday-themed toy every day. What a treat!

I can’t put these directly into my DD until I print the photos over the weekend. Then, I hope to find a decent local printer or rely on the one I’m not so fond of for most of the printing. I don’t want to go more than 3 days without getting photos printed, so if I have to use the local not-so-great-printer I will. I’m willing to sacrifice quality just to get it done if I have to, that’s more important to me than anything.

I also have a separate notebook I keep with the notes of what I want to do. I’ve never had a printer at home, so I’ve always had to batch print several days at once. I usually paperclip my thoughts, but sometimes it’s not enough space or I lose those thoughts. I like keeping it in a notebook. It helps me put it all together when the photos are done.

Another thing I decided yesterday, I like to know what’s happening in our lives other than holiday stuff, but I really want to focus on holiday stuff. Does that make sense? When the mood strikes, I’m going to include a little tidbit of what’s going on in our lives. It’ll be something like:

A: Started Reclaim My Life Class online C: Got home late W: Clapped when daddy walked through the front door.

Yesterday, someone commented that this is their first year doing one and it has not started well. I know I’ve read Ali Edwards say some encouraging words here and I’ll try to help reiterate. You want to take it day-by-day, but don’t look at it day-by-day. Meaning, there will be days that are dull and there will be days that aren’t dull and at the end, the whole thing will be awesome because it’s your memories. The first year I did this, I knew I was leaving the city I lived in. So, aside from actually wanting to do “cool” things for my album, I did also want to experience all that my area had to offer (and I lived in Orlando, so that’s a lot of offerings!).

Last year, I had a one-month-old baby, it was snowing, I was still recovering from delivery and most of my photos were of my son napping. Not. Fun. I knew I wanted to record whatever it was we did, but I had no time to do anymore than take a picture and add journaling. It was the most boring mini. A few months ago, I added some of the embellishments that I didn’t have time for last year (to make room for my 2011 DD supplies). When my folks were here I showed them my two albums. I warned my mom that the 2010 version was quite dull. We flipped through it and although the layouts are a little odd sometimes, it’s really amazing to flip through. Seeing my son taking naps in almost 18 of the 25 days somehow is still charming. Because that’s how I spent my 2010 December… with a sleeping baby! And this year, it’s going to be so different. So, don’t worry about it being dull, you’ll be surprised how it comes together at the end and in the future. (But, if you are super concerned, this is a great post by Ali Edwards with 25 ideas for inspiration.)

First, I have question. I tried to add the link to say I’m participating in Ali Edward’s DD for 2011, and not only did it not work, but it deleted all my “text” widgets in the process. I’m on wordpress, so if anyone has any idea why, please let me know.

Ok.

I’m really excited about the December Daily and I’m also excited about the Reclaim My Time Class I’m taking at Big Picture Classes. I already listened to the audio and saw some of what we’ll be working on and in more ways than I realized when I signed up for the class, it is the PERFECT project for me. I am so excited.

Anyway, since it’s the first of December I wanted to share a closer view of my “Introduction” page on my December Daily and the journaling I will add later today:

This is the journaling that appears (or will this evening) behind the calendar on the right:

I started planning this album in August. I had to order all the supplies to coincide with C’s business trip to the states. I started putting it all together in October, finishing on November 29th! Still, November 30th was the LONGEST day as I (impatiently) waited for December 1st so I could finally start it. 

What I really love about this project is that it is a daily reminder to be present, to create memories and not just let everything happen as I stand by the side wondering where the season went. Then, I immediately get to record those memories. This year, I am focusing on the details of what it means to have a one-year-old at home during the holidays. The way decorating changes, the things we do for W, the little pieces of baby stuff around our apartment (blocks by the christmas tree, as I’m sure is going to happen)! I also want to capture the magic of Christmas in Germany. Christmas Markets, traditions, gluhwein! Finally, I want to challenge myself to push my creativity daily whether it’s through photography, journaling, putting these pages together or a combination. 

December is going to be a lot of fun and I can’t wait to put that fun in this album. 

On the right side of the page in the little journaling card “Merry & Bright” I will write:

This album is dedicated to C & W who make every day Merry & Bright. Looking forward to our 2011 holiday season.

—

Allow me to gush for a moment. This is my 3rd year doing this. For years before I did this, I watched Ali Edwards enviously thinking “well, there’s not really much differences in our holidays from one year to the next, so why should I do this?” I decided to do it in 2009 because I knew we were going to likely move to Germany in 2010 and wanted to capture that holiday season in the states. Not only did we move in 2010, but we also had a baby. Of course, I had to do it in 2010 with a new born and now I’m doing it again. I have realized that I was wrong. The holidays aren’t always the same and I am so happy that this project exists. It is truly, my favorite memory keeping project – period.

Thanks for looking!

Yay! I’m so happy I finished this off last night. I only had a few pages to go and I rushed through them, but fortunately the 23-25 tend to be picture heavy anyway, so I didn’t need to go into as much detail. I’m still considering adding more to the album (Dec 26-Jan 6, the 12 days of Christmas), but if I don’t have the time at least I know this part will be done.

I shared the cover a few weeks ago and here it is again:

And here’s my inside pages to page 8 (some notes to follow): (Just to note: I have a bunch of post it notes all over the place, as well as penciled in notes with dimensions listed so I don’t have to remeasure later if I don’t want to.)

They are small, I realize that. I just didn’t want to have too many photos and this gives the gist. I love most of these pages. They are heavily inspired by either Kelley Purkey, Kinsey (not sure of the last name), a Sketchbook class I took (with KP), Laura Kurz and #8 is strongly based on a lovely Susan Weinroth piece. I think anything in my pages that look good are inspired by these lovely scrapbookers (and one or two by Jen Jockish, just not in these first 8 pages). If they don’t look good, then it wasn’t inspired by anyone – I’m hoping the pictures will add some beauty to it! I’ll add more notes and close-ups in December.

Here’s the next round: There’s some misting, painting and a break from the non-holiday specific paper. This year I really wanted to use 100% holiday paper, but changed my mind when some sassafrass paper made it’s way to my house! Day 11 is painted and it started out nice, but I don’t like some of the parts so I plan to cover them out and just let the parts I like shine through. I love page 14. I bought a french book in France and just cut funky hearts out to match the paper. I was going to do something like that again except with a christmas tree, but I didn’t. I’m not worried though, I imagine I’ll add more pages to this if I need to (also note, I haven’t finished my page #s yet which are on a separate sheet of vellum paper (2×8) with a bella blvd. number sticker on front and a date stamped on the back of a circle punched kraft sheet folded in half).

And the finale:

I love page 18 and 20. Making chevrons is fun and I will definitely do this again on a layout. I left 25 super simple because I plan to have more than a 2 page spread and I wanted to do something that I can easily duplicate. Page 22 is also very loosely based on a sketchbook sketch. Loved the simplicity of the foundation part of it (just two 1 inch squares and a word sticker that says merry on the left, and one that says christmas on the right). I am so glad I had the sketchbook class notes as I was putting this together.

Thanks for checking  out my DD! I can’t wait to share more in December (ie TOMORROW! Can you believe tomorrow is December?)

I’m so excited to take the Big Picture’s Class Reclaiming My Time. I signed up for it yesterday and it starts on Thursday. See, what happened is, I had an interesting weekend.

A condensed version:

My parents went back to the states on Saturday. Being an expat, away from family and good friends and with a one-year old, it’s very rare that I get a lot of me-time. On Sunday I realized that this is the most relaxed I’ve felt in over a year. I had time to think. I also had time (during the time my folks were here) to watch my mom. She’s a super-woman (aren’t all moms)? She does so much, asks for so little and shares so much love with the people she loves. I need to figure out how to do more, but do I have the time?

On Sunday I also discovered that one of my favorite bloggers has decided to stop blogging and focus on time with her family. Since I was in such a relaxed state, I started to think of what I want my life to be and how I can get it there. Not just the big stuff that’s very important to me, but the day to day life that I’m living. But, do I have the time?

On Sunday I decided what types of things I want to concentrate on for the upcoming year. Things that will help me be the type of wife, mother, and person I want to be. I need to spend quality time with my family and I need to constantly challenge myself. I set myself up with some scheduling (because this is how I work best) for the things I hate to do (cleaning), decided to limit my time online (removed blogs from my reader and reduced the number of online communities I will visit), and signed up for the Reclaiming My Time class.

I’m really excited. I’m not sure that someone can really have it all, but I’m willing to do what I can to get as much as I can as soon as I can.