Since it's been a while...

. . .I thought I would share a couple of Christmas gifts I received this year. I know, everyone is so over Christmas and knee deep in the new year, but humor me.

Honey and I decided to surprise each other this year and take a break from going shopping together and picking out our own gift. Honey did a much better job in the gift buying department than I did. All of his gifts were thoughtful and appreciated and I could honestly say with each one of them that "I've always wanted this!" One of the gifts he gave was the collection of Christmas movies that still come on TV around the holidays. Watching one of these immediately takes me back to my childhood and I love being able to share them with my kids commercial free whenever the mood strikes.
This year, Honey's SIL had my name. The children's literature collector in me has secretly coveted her copy of this book since I knew it existed. She graciously clenched the act of Congress it took to purchase a reasonably priced copy and gave it to me as my gift.

One of the most sentimental gifts I received was this photo album. When I unwrapped it, I immediately knew what it was. My mom scanned and arranged all of my childhood Santa pics into this very cute scrapbook. I. Love. It! (I am beginning to think that she really does read the blawg!)

Here are some of the early pics. Aren't the pages so cute?!

Here are some of the awkward jr. high pics. This is as close to the "bad hair years" as you can get and still retain your eyesight. I promise to never torture you with those again!

Seeing her ultra cute book displaying a little bit of my history, inspired me to make a book of my own to show off my own kids' pics with Santa. So on New Year's Eve, we loaded the whole gang up and made a stop at Hobby Lobby. You can always count on them to clearance their holiday goodies, and boy did I rake it in! I took my loot home and made this book for less than $10! I love how it turned out!

Here is one of the pages with pictures already inserted. Our little family pics started in 2000 with Bubba's first pic. Each page is 6x6. The perfect size to show off just one snapshot per page. Also small enough to complete the project, start to finish, in just one evening.

I also made a few extra pages. Now, all I have to do next year is add the photo to the page. I love it!

I actually went a little overboard and finished every single page in the book. I know, I was a little obsessed that night, but I was on a roll! Now I have enough pages to get me to 2019 or so.

My next project is to make a Halloween book and display pics of the kids in their costumes each year!