Conquering Christmas in San Antonio...

I had such a blast at Scrapbook 911 in San Antonio teaching Conquering Christmas this morning! First of all the store is GORGEOUS! It was totally unexpected, tucked away in a more industrial area - then - BAM - mecca o' scrapbooking in the middle of not where you'd expect! Beautiful building, lots of parking, humungo crop room and such good stuff...ooooooh, I shopped!

Some of the ladies were former CKU students of mine - one even drove in from Corpus Christi to take the class {wow} - all of them were fabulous. There's an extra room off to the side of their large crop room & I even had students in the overflow room who were such troopers.

I loved teaching this class. I'm a bit of an obsessive list maker and was thrilled to be able to share my holiday organization planner with so many ladies right before the season got started. I got a real kick out of seeing how many of them started adding personal touches to it right away...altering envelopes, making extra pockets, adding lists specific to their own holiday traditions...Keeping a record like this really makes you feel in control of what usually turns out to be a hectic holiday season. It was a great 2 1/2 hour class - but when we finished most of them said they were going to keep adding more personal touches to the book into the afternoon. We also talked about the importance of recording your memories of the holidays as they happen; not only as a jumpstart for journaling later, but also as a way to appreciate and reflect on the blessings of the season. I threw in a few of my favorite holiday recipes into the handout to kick off a section of the planner set aside for recording favorite food traditions in your family.

What is your favorite holiday dish? When you think of Christmas - is it Christmas cookies or Pea Salad? Bacon Cups or Creamed Spinach? Blog about it here then go write it down - make a scrapbook page about it...food carries memories and feelings of comfort for all of us...