December Daily Journal – Finished
Last weekend, I finished my daily journal for Christmas (I told you about this project here). I really wanted to capture our first Christmas in Europe together as well as I could. A daily journal seemed like just the ticket.
At first, I felt a little nervous. It seems countless people have attempted these “December Daily” projects and failed – it’s just so much work in an already busy season to paste photos, details, and other scrapbooking elements into a page Every Single Day leading up to Christmas.
I didn’t have access to all those fun scrapbooking resources. They’re not as popular in Germany, and they’re gosh darn expensive. So I decided to just journal. I only wrote about our days.
And as a result, I managed to keep up with my journal. Horay! (The key was making a bunch of journal pages beforehand so all I had to do was sit down and write a little each time I had a chance.) The lack of photos and photo layouts turned out to be a huge time saver.
These journals traditionally end on Christmas Day. But Christmas is celebrated on Christmas Eve in Germany, and I felt like our celebration was really going to last until January 1st… which was the day our guests all left.
So I kept going until January 1st.
Some days, all I wrote about was finding LED Christmas lights or remembering my favorite thing about dark, winter nights. Once we even found a special cheese at our grocery store called Christmas cheese! And other days were packed to the brim with going to see Avatar (in English) and scoping out Christmas markets or visiting family.
I finished the book with a list of goals I have for 2010. This project is definitely something I want to do again next year. And if you’d like, I’ll be sure to share the journaling process and ideas I have next season. Would you be interested?
Psst, don’t forget – if you’re looking for a little help with creative journaling, be sure to swing by my shop.
January 8th, 2010 at 5:28 am
That is soooo clever!
January 8th, 2010 at 8:23 am
You restocked the shop! :) I’m working on finishing up my December Daily album, I hope to put it up on the blog next week. It was so fun! :)
January 8th, 2010 at 8:27 am
Very cute Katie! Great idea!
January 8th, 2010 at 8:36 am
What a pretty journal! Thanks for stopping by my blog. You picked a rather long rant to read! I appreciate your comments…Lisa
January 8th, 2010 at 10:04 am
Your journal is beautiful! I want to do this next year, so yes please give us more detail!!!
January 8th, 2010 at 12:13 pm
Great idea to journal throughout December. I wish I had this year! This was my first time outside of the US for the whole holiday season and I decided to go 100% German — that meant no Thanksgiving (OK, there was a Skype chat with the fam during which something in the kitchen caught on fire and chaos and hilarity ensued), major excitement on my part for Niklaus, and visits to three Weihnachtsmarkte. It was hard without Thanksgiving. It’s normally my favorite holiday and I was suuuuper homesick. But actually what it meant was that the sense of anticipation for Christmas built up over the whole month. I was actually sad when Christmas was over!
Also, I know what you mean about craft supplies. Have you found Edelhoff Kreative Kaufhaus yet? There is one near S-Bahn Storkowerstrasse (probably others, too). Craft supplies are surprisingly expensive! Why is that?? I hand-made Christmas cards this year and had to scale back big time so as to avoid spending my life savings!
Thanks for sharing the December journal idea!
January 8th, 2010 at 12:49 pm
Please do share your process and ideas. I have tried so many times and failed at being a good journal keeper, which is a shame because I really do love to revisit my old notes years later. I am not terribly crafty but I do love a few pretty and creative embellishments. What a beautiful and inspiring project!
January 9th, 2010 at 10:34 am
Congratulations on finishing your December journal. That’s really great and something I’m sure you’ll treasure many many years to come. Love the idea!!
January 12th, 2010 at 12:44 pm
Katie – I love how you made that cute but simple little journal. Over the last year, as I’ve come to love small-space living, I’ve struggled with the fact that my scrapbooking hobby requires so much storage space. Plus, so many boxes of photos and memorabilia wait to be “scrapped,” because I like to sit down, get out all the crazy fixins, and make elaborate books. I’m loving your idea because it’s so much simpler, and less time-intensive. But I love my photos of my trips and experiences, too. This is definitely food for thought.