Sunday, August 11, 2013

May Your Days Be Filled with a Whole Lot of Merry! {and more England}


Happy Sunday my friends!  My sleep pattern is a bit out of whack...after getting up very early yesterday (5:30 am) I fell asleep on the couch at about 8 pm to wake up an hour later and be wide awake.  So I was happy to go down and sneak in a little inky time.  To get my mojo going after about a three week hiatus from my craft room, I decided to play along with the Festive Friday element challenge.  I used some striped Christmas paper to follow the candy cane theme.

I also had a new die that I had ordered right before I left so I created another Christmas inspired card below.

 I'm going to attempt to share all of our England pictures over the next week so feel free to skip past this if you aren't interested!  Here we go we slept in a bit and then decided to head up to London.  We took the bus tour and viewed the sites of London.  Such amazing sites:  Houses of Parliament/Big Ben, Tower Bridge, Tower of London, London Eye.

We were quite often on the tube riding into London and the boys kept themselves occupied with their iPod or by playing a game of sticks.  Any of your kids play this game?  I had never seen them play it before, but they loved it and by the end of the trip we were all playing.  It's a great game for younger children to learn to add/subtract quickly in their head.

After the bus tour, we went over to my Auntie Anne's for dinner.  She had a life size Jenga game. We all got a huge kick out of it and played at least 10 games.  Jenga is one of our favorite games at home. You can see we got better and the game was taller than Collin at one point.   Lots of concentration going on here.

Here are snapshots of my family relaxing.  From top left:  my cousins, Keith, Andy, Auntie Anne, Marcel and Paula, Paula and Pat.  The best part of our trip was most certainly spending time with our family.  We are on our fourth generation of having a US/UK family bond.  It started with my grandparents knowing each other, them introducing my parents, my generations and now my children and my cousin's children. It makes my heart happy to see the family continuing to spend time together. And you can tell by the smiles...we had a lot of laughs on this trip!
 

23 comments:

Barb said...

Wonderful photos! I'm really enjoying your trip pics, Lynn and looking forward to more!

Love both cards too! The tiny jingle bells are the perfect touch on your first and I love that die-cut on the second - makes for faster cards come crunch time!

Marisa said...

Two wonderful Christmas cards and a great set of pictures! My kids play that finger game and I have tried it a few times. Great fun indeed. Jet lag in not fun coming West...I was always sooo tired around 4 p.m.

Lisa Elton said...

Darling cards Lynn, I'm smitten with the second one FOR SURE!! What wonderful photos. Your boys look like they had a GREAT time. Thank you for sharing these with us!!

Tracey McNeely said...

Lynn I love your cards, but I really LOVE your photos. You have captured some really great shots!!

Chrissy Larson said...

What amazing fun!!! Looks like a great time was had by all.

Can I just say that I am in love with this Christmas cards! WOW!

Nancy Penir said...

Wonderful photos, Lynn! Beautiful family. 2 sweet Christmas cards, just love the sentiment scrips on both!

Nancy Penir said...

Wonderful photos, Lynn! Beautiful family. 2 sweet Christmas cards, just love the sentiment scrips on both!

Brandi said...

Adorable cards and cute sentiments!

Maureen said...

I don't know why, but I get teary eyed looking at your family photos...maybe I need a trip to Ohio! I'm so glad you take lots of photos :) Oh, and I love the cards! The second one with the white die cut over the polka dots is stunning! ox

Sue Lelli said...

What a GREAT trip! LOVE the photos and your cards, too, Lynn!

Arlene said...

Great photos of your trip...looks like you had an awesome time! Love the card as well. :)

Unknown said...

Love seeing your vacation pictures! Looked like an awesome trip! I adore your Christmas card with the die cut on polka dots!! So fun!

sandie said...

Oh Lynn these photos of the family bring tears to my eyes! Softy I know!! And wow to my town. BUT this is not a good representative of the tube, you don't get to see much sunlight in the tunnels!!
I love this die, and I want it, will mail later to see where it is from. And card number one is my kind of card, CAS perfection with bells x

Karen B. said...

To amazing holiday cards and I don't know that game sticks I would love to hear more about i thinl my boys would like it!

Jen W. said...

Totally gonna be CASEing these cards. Love them!

Kara said...

great cards! great photos! that giant Jenga looks fun!

Aimes said...

You just can't go wrong with red and white/polka dots and stripes for Christmas cards. The addition of that gorgeous twine and those adorable bells on the first card have me wanting December to come sooner rather than later! LOL!
You've captured brilliant pics of your adventures over here. Will you be sharing a scrapbook layout in the future I wonder? ;D
Hugs!
x

Meredith MacRitchie said...

Love love looooove this. Every little thing about it!! So glad to see you playing again this week!!

I *loved* London, and I can't wait to go back. Isn't the Tower fascinating? How awesome is it that you have family to spend time with there?

Julie said...

Great memories in your photos...that's what its all about.
Great card,. I love the simplicity.

Virginia L. said...

Sorry that I am late to comment on this post! It's so precious that you and your family in UK get to spend time together! Love all the smiley photos!

Ardyth said...

Love your use of red stripes for the candy cane challenge. And of course your pics of London - I used to live there (met my husband when I was working there almost 20 years ago!) Looks like you had a fantastic time!

Erin (Homemade Cards by Erin) said...

Oh, that looks like a fun new die....

Geri said...

Love your FF card, Lynn...simple, sweet, and STRIKING! And I adore the second one...love that sweet little border die! (and the sentiment is great with it!) And more great pictures...thanks for sharing with us and for playing along at FF!!