Believe!

Remember my phase of sticking Santa hats on all those critters?  Well, you can stick them on letters too!

"Believe" was stamped with jumbo outline alphabet and then cut out. I thought about adding a BUNCH more to this layout but after fooling with it for awhile, I decided that any "fru fru" (spelling?) I might add would just distract. 

I'll just use all those punched Santas I made on gift tags.  Simple is OK - you have my permission to keep your layouts clean and simple - Of course you have my permission to cludge them up with lots of fancy stuff too - I just want you to scrapbook occasionally.

I believe that  in the 1960s Santa "grew" a really big beard.  (These photos were taken too early in the decade for him to have been influenced by the hippies)

I believe that fake windows were popular displays at the time.

I believe that I was about 4 and 7 in these pictures.

What I can't believe is that my very proper mother kept a photo with my slip showing!  (Hey, it is proof that once upon a time I wore them - can't remember the last time I touched one - they just don't go with my wardrobe of jeans.  Do stores still sell slips?)

I BELIEVE IN SANTA! 
Santa is what makes so many of us spend extra money (and sometimes not so extra money) for Toys for Tots, or Salvation Army Angel Trees or local toy drives.  Santa is what makes us dig a little deeper in our pockets so that children we don't know will have a happy holiday - one magical day in their year that may hold several very dark days.   May Santa live and thrive for another hundred years and more!