Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Christmas in July

Instead of just scrapbooking individual escapades, like vacations, birthdays, and concerts, I decided I needed to chronicle more every day antics as well. Before, I'd go on creative binges after week long summer vacations. These binges were always fun, albeit exhausting, but they weren't very efficient. I'd end up with a supercalafragalisticexpialadoshus album of . . . one week of my life. Now, I try to have my camera with me at all times, ready for any photo op that sashays my way. This way, I'll have custom made albums to enjoy in the future.

A couple weeks ago, I visited Natalie in Columbus and we scrapbooked our stinkin' hearts out. Because I want to get entirely caught up on everything pre-wedding before I start my wedding album(s), I was very focused on churning out the pages as fast as I possibly could. Unfortunately, I didn't get entirely caught up, but I did get a big chunk out of the way. For some reason, I had a ton of Christmas and Winter pages to complete.


Here's a Christmas layout documenting the great times we have at the Pruner household on Christmas Eve. These particular pictures are from Christmas Eve 2010. We do a gift exchange and chant (loudly) the name of the receiver while clapping on beat.

This layout also features pictures from Christmas 2010. The pictures are hard to see, but the 3 across the top right side are Lewis, Durocher, and Michel family pictures. A typical family photo session during the holidays takes at least 20 minutes to complete. The Michels are pretty easy, but with two crazy boys in the Durocher family, and two ornery siblings in the Lewis family who shall remain nameless, it takes a lot of finesse to get the perfect set of photos.

As a yearly tradition, the girls on my mom's side of the family spend a day cooking sweets and hors' dourves that we split between the families and enjoy during the holidays. For years we've been making some of the same things: "Little Pizzas," cocktail reubens, and chex mix (we add Cheez-Its), but we've attempted some new things in recent years.

The cousins on the same side of my family have made it a monthly priority to get together for a "girls' day." Last December, we went to Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor to participate in a "White Christmas" sing-a-long.

If I tried, I don't think I could successfully calculate the number of hours I spend crafting these pages, and I will forever keep my distance from calculating the number of dollars I spend crafting them. I suppose it's all worth it, though, isn't it?

4 comments:

  1. If you have the time and patience (and $), it is so worth it! It's good to create something for yourself and for your family in the future. I thought I would be a scrapbooker, but I'm not. The only scrapbook I ever completed was for my bff's wedding. She had a destination wedding, and asked me to complete it before her local family reception, which was 2 months later. It cost SO MUCH MONEY and took up lots of my weekends. After that, I had no real desire to scrapbook again. Instead, I found that what works for me is to make photo books from Shutterfly. They're really great quality, pretty simple to make, perfectly capture my photo memories, and are a lot smaller than a scrapbook, so easier to store. But I think scrapbooking is such a fun idea and what a great memento for the future. Happy Scrapbooking! I love your pages!

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  2. Thanks for the comment! Scrapbooking certainly does break the bank...and it does take patience; but the end result is wonderful. I just have to remind you: your friend's scrapbook isn't the only one you've ever made...remember the one we made as a punishment for volleyball?! Do you still have that?

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  3. That book is around here somewhere.....it always makes me smile to see those pics of you guys. I just told Ryan V today it seems like yesterday you were a student at MHS and I would see you in the hall...now you're a teacher and I still see you in the hall!

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  4. Ha! You're right...I do remember that volleyball scrapbook. I say remember as if I ever forgot. It's sitting right next to me in my apartment right now : ) I look at it all the time. I just didn't consider it a scrapbook since it was so amateur : ) Those were the good ol' days!

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