Oh What Fun | December Daily Says 22-23

We wrote our letters to Santa today.  The time was drawing really close and Avinash realized he needed to get his letter in the mail soon. I put in a picture of these cute lego ornaments they got for the tree.  Today was project day apparently.

   

I wrote out what they said on a little tag in case it is too tough to read their writing.  Don't tell them I took their letters out of the envelope.  I wrote down the lists and put it in though.  I just love keeping their writing at this age. 

I punched holes in the date card to frame the letters.

I put a little red label with their ages and names on the back.

Lakshman wrote a letter.  It's mostly scribbles but I think it gets the message across. 

 The next spread holds our holiday card for the year.  I did these so last minute this year, but I'm glad I finally got them out.

I used an Ali Edwards template here for the journaling here.

 I added one the transparency overlays as well.  I like that it kind of matches the gold foil lettering on our card.

I journaled about the things we did that day and how I was feeling.  It was a really nice day over all.  I punctuated each little story with a different stamp.  I added a little strip of patterned paper and a chipboard piece. 

Our Special Christmas Morning Cinnamon Bread

This is one of my favorite old recipes from my blog and I thought it would be fun to revisit it.  It was dubbed "christmas pan" by Avinash years ago when he used to refer to all breads as pan.  The name stuck.

Since I first shared this recipe on my blog, four years ago, it has been shared almost 100,000 times on pinterest.  Wow!!!  That is a lot for my little old corner of the internet.  Cinnamon sugar don't lie.

This is really a ring of biscuits, held together in a sticky sweet wreath after being baked together with maple syrup and brown sugar.  Making it on Christmas morning has become a really fun family tradition.  We love all things covered in cinnamon and sugar. They also require no planning ahead or rising (like cinnamon rolls), which is good if you are not a great food planner like me.   They are SUPER EASY and SUPER DELICIOUS!

Our Christmas Pan
4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 cup unsalted butter and 1/2 cup shortening, cut into pieces (or 1 cup butter)

2 cups buttermilk


3 tablespoon butter, melted


1/2 cup maple syrup

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 cup chopped pecans, opt.

1/4 cup chopped almonds, opt.

Here is how you make them:

Combine the dry ingredients.
  

Cut the butter/shortening into the flour until it resembles small peas and add the buttermilk, just barely mix.  Flour surface and lightly roll out dough.  

Cut into rounds (about 15, I had a few left over which Avi got to roll out and mix over and over while we waited for the bread to bake).

Combine melted butter and syrup.  Pour half into bottom of pan, sprinkle half the brown sugar and spices on top.  

Arrange biscuits in a circle and pour the remaining ingredients on top.

Bake at 375 degrees for 20-30 minutes in fluted bundt pan.  Invert onto serving dish after taking out of oven.

After inverting them you can see all the ooey gooey baked in goodness. 

The kids love eating them even more than baking with me.  She kept politely asking for bigger and bigger pieces.

Cinnamon roll for the baby please?

Somebody else loved them too.  First he flung all his pieces to the ground.  Then, as he realized what they tasted like each piece was carefully stuffed in his mouth.  HA!

Check out more of my holiday inspiration here:

• Crafty Gifts to Give
• December Daily / Scrapbooking
• Free Printable Gift Tags
• Food
• Holiday Style (How to do Christmas Tree Bokeh Pictures)
• Glitter Ornaments DIY

Original Post:

our christmas pan

**homemade version**

4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 cup unsalted butter and 1/2 cup shortening, cut into pieces (or 1 cup butter)

2 cups buttermilk


3 tablespoon butter, melted


1/2 cup maple syrup

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 cup chopped pecans, opt.

1/4 cup chopped almonds, opt.

Combine the dry ingredients.  Cut the butter/shortening into the flour until it resembles small peas and add the buttermilk, just barely mix.  Flour surface and lightly roll out dough.  Cut into rounds (about 15, I had a few left over which Avi got to roll out and mix over and over while we waited for the bread to bake).
Combine melted butter and syrup.  Pour half into bottom of pan, sprinkle half the brown sugar and spices on top.  Arrange biscuits in a circle and pour the remaining ingredients on top.
Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes in fluted bundt pan.  Invert onto serving dish after taking out of oven.

Oh What Fun! | December Daily Day 20&21

Today was a "snow day", except the snow was all fake of course. We probably aren't due for snow here for another ten years after the snowfall in January. 

The kids have been face timing a lot with my parents since my Dad has been home from the hospital. It has provided all of us with a certain amount of comfort. Nandini this day was very sweetly reading a book with him. Love how she is following along with him. 

I used the new a beautiful mess app script brush set on both these photos. I love the silliness of using a huge photo overlay. Plus, it helped distract a bit from all the legs in the background of the photo.

The next spread is all about my trip to the nutcracker with Avinash. Nandini doesn't quite have the patience or interest in it yet. Though she did ask to come with us at the end. Ouch. 

Avinash really appreciated it though. He wanted to cover is eyes when Fritz breaks the nutcracker. He takes these things to heart so much. He learned the Chinese dance in class and was excited to see it live. He kept telling me different parts were just perfect or really well danced. He also wants to play all th male roles some day. When he's older. 

I carefully pasted this tattoo on to the surface of our tickets. I clipped them on to a transparency page divider. Love how far one sheet can go in a mini album like this. Plus it adds cohesion. 

I stapled the ticket envelope to the back of the transparency. When I asked Avi to hold it before the show he said, "it would be a honor!" That just made me melt. I had to save it of course after that. 

I plan to tuck my journaling inside the envelope here. 

I added the text over a photo I took during the performance (no flash of course) using the letter glow app.  My computer is super old and slow, so I've been printing a lot directly from my phone lately.  I added the little gold star under the wording.

I used an older stamp along the lines of the horizon. I added another chipboard piece on top. I have pretty carefully rationed them and have enough until the 25th. 

Oh What Fun! | December Daily Day 19

This is my Day 19 for December. This was a very big important first for our family, so I had to write about that.  Avinash finally lost his first tooth!

He was so excited and happy when it happened.  The second best part was seeing how happy it made his little sister.  She gave him the biggest hug just because she was so happy for him.  She kept telling me, "Today is [Avi's] day!"  Believe me, that is a rare utterance from her.

I added this little tree to the tag on my divided page. I was going to use it for journaling, but I decided to add a library pocket in the middle as well. 

 I backed the library pocket with patterned paper and a printed transparency and let the pocket face inwards towards the photo.

I put a little photo inside the pocket as well.  I used this Kelly Purkey star sticky note outside the pocket just for fun.  I will put whatever notes he gets from the tooth fairy in here as well.

 After I trimmed the transparency I put the rest into a pocket on the main page.  I think it gives a nice continuity to the spread and ties in the disparate elements together.

I poked five holes in a journaling card and stitched a quick star with red twine.  I love when things turn out the way they look in my head.

This spread was so random but still so much fun to put together.  Here is a look at it all together.

So much excitment and love here.

I journaled on the other half of the patterned paper from day 18.  I stapled a big gold A down on one side (for Avinash, of course). 

You can view all of my December Daily Pages here. 

Thanks for visiting! In my etsy shop, in addition to my washi tape samplers I added a holiday set as well.  This set is cool because it comes with red and gold glitter twine and glitter ribbon.  Check out the Christmas washi tape sampler here.  I really had fun with the colors here, lots of red, green, silver and gold with pops of teal, chalkboard and lime. Every order from now until the end of December also comes with a free gift. Use code WASHI for 10% off any order or code RAINBOWS for free domestic shipping.

Oh What Fun! | December Daily Day 18

Today while we were out at a friends place (where I took no pictures), I got to see a new trick from Lakshman. It was just him shaking his head back and forth then laughing. It's not a development milestone. There is no space for this achievement in his baby book. But it was most the precious thing. 

So, today I wrote about him. What he is like at ten months. Is he really magic? Yes. And famous too, according to Avinash because he is the first baby who ever laughed. True story.

I took this picture (on manual focus, f stop very low - I'm not a pro with the technical stuff) of him in the afternoon in front of our tree. I have about one hundred blurry pictures and this one, which was when I decided to call it quits. 

I trimmed a pattern paper from the kit in half for this 4x6 card below the photo. I added a strip of the festive masking tape. I lined up a few chipboard pieces on the side and put in a star in the center one. I decided to add a little acrylic present and the date using gold thickers. I think these frame my journaling pretty well. 

I added a pocket page in between this page and the next spread. I kept each pocket see through somewhat. 

 Each pocket got used for some embellishment. This one is filled an entire packet of acrylic stars from Freckled Fawn. I love just about anything rainbow colored. 

I stapled a large gold doily to the divided page as well. One pocket has some die cut stars and the word twinkle from the DD kit. The little candy cane is a Carter's tag I've probably been saving for years. I also paper clipped a few of the kraft postage stamp stickers from the kit on top. I tucked in a little wood veneer tree with them for good measure. 

Oh What Fun! | December Daily Day 17

 Trying to get a decent picture of these kids all dressed up, after having eaten half their body in chocolate and cookies, was next to impossible.  Turns out I really love this photo because of all the silliness it captures.  This is definitely my least blurry picture I could find, but you can still see how Nandini is smirking at me because she is about to bolt off camera. I thought adding the words #sugarhigh (font bebas in white) over the photo was a bit redundant but it had to be done.  I stapled a gold star on top for extra sprinkly goodness.

I put two photos of me and Ryan holding the baby on top.  He is so well loved. The Santa picture was almost obligatory but he wasn't my favorite.

 I even made them sit in front of our tree at home for a picture.  Results were mixed.  I added some more words before printing and a couple gold embellishments after.  I put a few strips of washi tape on the edges of the picture and used one of my favorite pattern papers of the kit, north pole.

 This countdown card from Pink Paislee is another favorite.  Just so graphic and bold.   I added a little gold sticker just to tie it in to the rest of the spread.

 Here is a more full look of the page.

On the back I added an extra star and an older Kelly Purkey stamp at the top.  Such an awesome Elf reference and one that seems to apply to my daily life way too often.
 I added a little perforated word strip and some journaling below.  Such a good look.  I saw this a lot in Ali Edward's week in the life book and just love it.  Something about the texture and contrast it adds.


You can view all of my December Daily Pages here.

Thanks for visiting! In my etsy shop, in addition to my washi tape samplers I added a holiday set as well.  This set is cool because it comes with red and gold glitter twine and glitter ribbon.  Check out the Christmas washi tape sampler here.  I really had fun with the colors here, lots of red, green, silver and gold with pops of teal, chalkboard and lime. Every order from now until the end of December also comes with a free gift. Use code WASHI for 10% off any order or code RAINBOWS for free domestic shipping.

Oh What Fun! | December Daily Day 16

 Today's story is about our trip to the children's museum. Lots of days off from school means lots of outings and keeping busy.  It is nice to have extra time to meet up with friends and stuff, but the break from our routine is a challenge when it comes to behavior.

 I printed out another long photo like I did in the beginning of my album.  This time I used a 3.5x8 size and punched holes directly in the picture instead of using a page protector.  I journaled on the photo (font, my old remington) and an old SC digital stamp. 

I added a chipboard piece on top and stapled a little ribbon to the edge. 

 Here is how it looks with the day 15 facing it.  I like the layers of light and shadow on this spread playing off of each other.

I used another Ali Edward's daily template for the large photo.  Just loved seeing this new exhibit/art installation at the thinkery. I watercolored a bit in the box and taped down some skyline tissue paper from the last SC kit. 

 I added two 3x4s on the back of the long photo.  One is from that day of Lakshman and the other is Avinash at a similar exhibit years ago.  It was so fun to see these two engaged in the same activity.

You can view all of my December Daily Pages here.

Thanks for visiting! In my etsy shop, in addition to my washi tape samplers I added a holiday set as well.  This set is cool because it comes with red and gold glitter twine and glitter ribbon.  Check out the Christmas washi tape sampler here.  I really had fun with the colors here, lots of red, green, silver and gold with pops of teal, chalkboard and lime. Every order from now until the end of December also comes with a free gift. Use code WASHI for 10% off any order or code RAINBOWS for free domestic shipping.