Hello December Daily and Reverb 10

Ok, don't hate me. I know, I know...my big return was supposed to be in September (ahem) but in my defense, I've had a whole lot of crazy going on in this life. However, let's not live in the past...

I am so excited to welcome December! This is always an amazing time for our family. Jim absolutely adores the Christmas season and not so long ago I felt, um, decidedly different. For  many years, the challenges of meeting the needs of parents, step-parents, extended family and my own little family to celebrate the holidays became overwhelming. Really, it just seemed like so much work.

Enter Jim. 

His enthusiasm  for Christmas is absolutely infections. And, he single-handedly turned this Scrooge into a holiday elf. So much so, that last year I instituted my very own tradition - creating a December Daily album, documenting each day of this magical season from the 1st through the 25th. The concept of this project was started by Ali Edwards, an amazing artist and one of my personal heroes. I was amazed by how much this album reinforced the joy of Christmas for me. It is truly one of my most favorite creations. I will be photographing last year's album and posting to my Flickr photostream this weekend. And I also plan on sharing my pages from this year's album as well. Right now, I am still constructing my base pages. But I started taking pictures and making notes about today's story. Look for a post this weekend sharing my base concept and my first few creations.

I am also adding a new twist on my blog this year. I am playing along with Reverb 10. Creator Gwen Bell has this to say about Reverb 10:

"It’s an open online initiative that encourages participants to reflect on this year and manifest what’s next. It’s an opportunity to retreat and consider the reverberations of your year past, and those that you’d like to create in the year ahead. We’re connected by the belief that sharing our stories has the power to change us."

I. Love. This. 

So today's prompt was to encapsulate 2010 in one word. This year my one little word was hope.