More Picture The Holidays

I am now to the point where I am confusing Picture the Holidays prompts and JYC prompts. But that's okay! Most of this will eventually end up in my JYC album - assuming I ever get around to creating actual pages!

Day 4 of Picture the Holidays asked for the "Keys to Happiness" - what is it that keeps you grounded or is key to your happiness during the Christmas Season? Day 16 of JYC asks what am I grateful for today? 

One of my Keys to Happiness is having my whole family gathered around me. It's a big part of the season.  So today I am grateful that Sarah is home from college. Even if it means that all her STUFF (of which this represents less than 1/3) is home too.  I'll be even more grateful when her stuff finds a home other than my scrap room! But this is where it got dumped last night.
  

The Day 14 Picture the Holidays prompt was Holiday Mail (Day 3 JYC).  Here's the last little bit of my Christmas Cards that went postal on the 15th. They are all out now!

And here is a beautiful card that I received in the mail on Tuesday.  My photography doesn't do the colors justice - the girl's coat and jacket are truly Christmas Red (not so orange). Isn't it gorgeous?  One guess who it's from!

This card is now sitting right by my computer where I can admire it everyday.

Day 15 of Picture the Holidays was about gifts - Day 10 of JYC about wrap. Here's my take on the two.  First the "before" shot - the cabinet where I've been hiding things. When fully open, Ashley takes interest. No doubt looking for space to crawl in and curl up.

The "during" shot - everything piled up on the countertop to begin the wrapping process.

The "after" shot with most (not quite all yet) wrapped and returned to the cabinet.  I think it is funny how deceiving this shot is - it just doesn't look like much.

So here is a close-up of the bottom right portion of the cabinet, so you can see the layer of gifts stacked up in the back, behind the ones you can see above. 

I didn't go for any theme or assigned wrap this year - I was really just trying to use up a lot of the leftovers from previous years. I finished off the ends of four rolls!  We still have enough in the Christmas wrap box to wrap for another two or three years I think. But at least with having emptied out some rolls, I won't feel guilty buying more if I catch something really pretty on the after-holiday sales.  These are all traditional red/green bright/cheery. I'd love to give a try at "elegant" next year!