So this will be my 13th December Daily. Wow. Just the BEST project. So grateful for Ali Edwards.
The last few years I've kept my project simple so I can work on pages daily and get it all finished by January. Not because I think you have to, I just work better in the moment. Plus I'm one of those people that loves Christmas but also loves packing it all away and not thinking about it once January comes.
Keeping it simple for me means doing my pages digitally, using templates, sticking with a formula and not feeling like I have to get too creative every single day.
I just want a record of our Christmas and Summer to look back on later.
I usually go with a single photo per day and stick with two types of journaling:
today we did this/today this happened, or
general thoughts about Christmas, summer, traditions, favourites, routines
I love both kinds of stories. The 'today we did this' pages feel a bit week in the life-ish and I love capturing the rhythms of December and summer here in Sydney.
But I also really like sharing deeper thoughts about the season and I think I'm leaning towards more journaling this year. Feelings more than facts. This has been an extraordinary year, in good ways and bad, so some reflecting will be good. I've signed up for Liz Lamoreaux's December Pause class with daily prompts and inspiration and I think something like that will help me take my project in that direction. I'm also a past student of Shimelle's Journal Your Christmas so I'm looking forward to those prompts and ideas too.
I'm going to use a red Life Crafted album by Citrus Twist that I bought earlier this year and plan to use my 4x8 digital templates. I've also got my eye on some digital things from Ali Edwards, Paislee Press and In A Creative Bubble. I used to buy ALL the digitals in the excitement then end up not using much so I've learned to just buy things as I need them rather than having a big stash.
I'm not great at planning ahead design-wise for projects like this - I need some real-life photos and stories to play with so it's usually not until I make my first page on December 1st that I feel like I know what I'm doing. Trusting in that process as I see all the amazing December Daily prep going on.
But I'm definitely being pulled in the direction of deeper, more thoughtful stories this year. More reflecting, less reporting.