I used the Kate Hadfield doodle pack, Night Before Christmas
Sahlin Studio Paper Pack painted: fresh snow papers
Valorie Wibbens Elements from Brrrrr Elements
Rachel Young Papers from Christmas Waltz Papers
Word Art from Studio Bethany's Christmas 6 Word Art pack.
Journaling reads: When I was a little girl, I could NOT sleep on Christmas Eve. The excitement was just too much for me, and I would envariably sneak out to look at the presents long before my parents desired to leave the warm and cozy confine of their bed.
Our family had a tradition of leaving the tree lights on the tree all night on Christmas Eve, so I would quietly hop out of the bunk bed I shared with my sister, and sneak down the hall, past my parents’ and brothers’ rooms clad in my dreaded footie pajamas to see what kind of splendor the Jolly of Elf had brought us.
Most of the time I would sit in the rocking chair and just marvel at the sight of the festively lit tree with the mound of presents wrapped neatly by my mother and signed in my father’s distinctive hand writing. (These are things you don’t notice when you are four or five, but do start to notice when you are six.) Other times I would lie down on the sofa and wonder what was under all of the festive wrapping. I would never open any, but it did take all of my limited patience to refrain from doing so.
The year I was five, my parents (or Santa) got me the bike I’d wanted to very badly. My parents hadn’t wrapped it, but put a big shiny bow on the white basket with the pink and purple plastic flowers all over it. This was the year I wasn’t quite so stealthly, because this was a year that my mom came out of her bed and caught me. She didn’t shoo me back to bed though, she just pull-
ed me onto her lap, rocked me in the rocking chair, stroked my brown hair, and whispered
in my ear, “Did you see what Santa brought you?”
This is one of the last times I remember my mother rocking me to sleep. Soon after this magical night I grew into a six year old who no longer believed in Santa. But to this day I still love to sit in the glow of the tree and dream.
