Stella and Beverly's Takes

Here is mine. I just completed it. LOL

Journaling reads:
The best thing about Christmas is seeing the gleam in Victoria's eyes which shows unadulterated joy, innocence and happiness for the season. This in itself makes me proud to be a parent and makes our Christmas worth while. The fact that we will be paying for Christmas for months is not important when we see how magical Christmas is for her. The squeal of delight on Christmas morning of, "Mommy, Daddy....Santa came, Santa came!!!! Come look!", reminds me of long ago Christmases when I was doing the same with my parents. She is the reason that we go through all of the Christmas crowds and screaming children at Toys R Us. We have so much fun deliberating over what to get her and how much she will like it. Christian and I have a hard time sleeping waiting for her to come and get us on Christmas morning. I am not sure who gets more excited, Victoria or us. She makes our Christmas.

Here is Beverly's take:

I wanted to use a different style of journaling - so every journal
strip
starts with one of the letters from 'CHRISTMAS'  IYGWIM. (NB: Fish is
the
nickname for Auryn - our youngest son! LOL) Looking forward to the next
challenge - I love Tracy's idea!
Beverley x
Journaling reads:

Christmas Tree: decorated with far too many lights & usually done by
me.
Fish helped this year & we always have Christmas songs playing while we
work
on it.

Having Breakfast: We don't usually bother but at Christmas we have the
works - A full English to tide us over; Lunch is usually late anyway!

READ: Every year I read 'Twas The Night Before Christmas before bedtime
on
Christmas Eve. The boys say they will carry it on when they have kids
of
their own.

I'm dreaming of a WET Christmas: Why is the weather always dull and
grey???

School Nativity: Just wouldn't be Christmas without it! This year Fish
was
the Innkeeper.

The youngest child: Hands out the gifts from under the tree. This falls
to
Fish now and he loves this special role.

Meal: Christmas Dinner is the one time each year when we sit together
to eat
as a family. I cherish this time, made even more precious as each year
could
be the last.

A Vist To Ruxley: The garden centre has the best decorations and we
visit
Santa here too (the real one, obviously). This year, Santa left three
of his
reindeer in a pen outside so that the children could visit with them.

Stockings: It just wouldn't be Christmas without them. Each of the boys
has
a stocking - all handmade by me. Traditionally we open them Christmas
morning but Sean gets particular enjoyment opening his at around 2 am
after
a night out with friends.