Tuesday To-Do List

I think it's fun when blogs have a reason for a post on a specific day. My friend Taralee has "Fortunate Friday" and my other friend, Jenn, has started a "I totally recommend . . . " She also had Haiku Monday, which I loved, but haven't seen lately. Anyhow, I think on Tuesdays I will try to post the progress of a project I have been working on. My to-do list is a mile long with projects I make up that, then, I NEED to get done. These projects usually don't have anything to do with our health or happiness or actual needs, but they help me with my sanity. So, without further ado, here's this Tuesday's To-Do:

Christmas Cards
I am a pack rat! I can't help it; it's in my blood. I have not been able to part with the darling Christmas cards and letters we've received over the past many years. Usually I make a scrapbook page pocket and put everything in there and then nobody knows what the huge lump in my scrapbook is. Well, my UBER creative and organized friend Angela had out this Christmas album one year at her house. Angela started taking her families' and friends' cards and pictures and every year she compiles them into one album for that specific purpose. She swore it was easy (all the cute photos and cards make up the decorations) and cathartic (because I can finally get rid of a lot of the paper and just cut out what I like.) Well, I like the pictures, crafty homemade cards, and particularly clever letters in Christmas cards, so I desginated a favorite for the year. Also, because of the ever popular photo card, I picked one of those, too, as one of my favorites. Then, I cut out the pictures and tagged them with the name of the family and where the family was living that particular year. It was funny to notice the senders' changes over the three years that I scrapped and some similarities. For example, my friend Leslie has done two of her cards (in the past three years) in hues of blue and brown and while it it not the traditional Christmas colors, her pictures ALWAYS look perfect (the other year they were at Disneyland.) I think the Marshall boys have changed the most the past few years (talk about grown up this year!), my cousin Tyler always has his picture at a foreign location (Yellowstone, Norway, and the Angels game), and my other cousin Greg's family always have their photo taken outside with the changing fall colors. I went from an entire box of paper to 17 cute scrapbook pages in a matter of hours. I still need to label the album (that I have yet to buy) by the year and I'll be able to pull it out with the other Christmas crap each year. YAY. Anyway, I wanted to share the awesome results and I am so thrilled to CHECK this one off the to-do list. Here's some close ups of 2007's page.

(Disclaimer: I didn't include our pool company's photo card, even though it's darling and they send us one of their family each year OR our financial planner's. I thought that was weird. My favorite letter this year was Jer's, but she needs to give me another copy of it and I'll slide it behind that ribbon with the tag that says "Fave Letter 2007". Also, some of the late "holiday" cards [cough, cough, Chris] and Annilee's will be on a page I have yet to do. Cool, huh!)