Last November, I set out to work on a project that would document the whole month of December.The class was called Your December Story. It's comprised of a series of prompts, both for journaling and visual storytelling. It's not a December Daily which was perfect for me. I wanted something easy that I knew I would complete. Most of the layouts were finished by January. All except for two which I just finished today. I have to say that I find this very fulfilling. This is the first December in which I have managed to document all of the events that took place.
My introduction to my December story actually began in November. Prompts from the class had me searching for the first signs of Christmas to appear. I purposefully tinted the photos to help convey the changes. I started with black and white photos of our living room prior to decorations. I then moved to a vintage tint which keeps the color muted while showing the very first decorations we had observed this year.
Page two documents where we would be spending Christmas, current events, holiday wishes and our first holiday treat purchases. Now that I am thinking of the holidays, I have switched to brighter patterned papers and supplies.
Page three was dedicated to Holiday Decorations we observed around town. These included holiday murals and a variety of Christmas trees.
Page four documents the process of decorating our home. It also allows me some space to write about how this Christmas is different than past years.
There isn't much to do around the holidays where we live. To make things more special, we ate out every weekend which was a real treat for us.
Page six documents other holiday treats such as a trip to the movies, hot cocoa, sampling new candy and receiving a gift certificate from my husband's job. All little things to help make our December Merry.
Page seven documents typical everyday events that would have been documented in my monthly pocket page spreads. This includes the weather and what our cats were up to. I also did a recap of what I liked and didn't like about 2013.
Christmas Day fit entirely onto one layout. For whatever reason, I didn't have a lot of great photos of my son opening his gifts. Documenting it in PL style allowed me to highlight the full story with just a few photos.
Page nine could have been a layout. However, with the large number of boat photos from the nighttime Christmas parade, I felt pocket pages would suit it better. I strayed away from the holiday paper to include a constellation print. Perfect for a nighttime photo shoot.
Page ten could have also been a full 12x12 layout. However, I needed a back side to page nine so I made it into a pocket page instead. This page documents how we made a rice krispy treat holiday train.
Once again, I find myself liking some of the pocket pages and others not so much. What I did like was using the Your December Story class to document my Christmas. I was able to include so many details both large and small about the things that happened throughout the month. I also didn't have the stress of doing a Decemeber Daily. I didn't use all of the prompts. Some were a bit difficult for our small family of three. However, I did find that many of the prompts guided me into finding additional stories that may not have been told. I plan to use Your December Story again in 2014.
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