And here we are for day seven.

I liked the layout of this page and thought it was a great opportunity to tell some of the smaller stories from our week, so I made 3 little 2×2 photos and then journaled each of the stories in 3 journaling cards.

Here’s the before of this page:

and now the spread:

a closer look:

The stories I wrote were about how I am now driving on the freeway all the time (and had to on Saturday to take David to this new school), how I’ve been going to work a bunch lately, and how Nathaniel and I had a date night while David and his friends were working on their Tech Challenge (and Jake was away.)

I love having these little bits in my album and am planning to do the same for the backside.

And here we are for day five.

Today’s story is our Breakfast with Santa. We’ve been doing this for many, many years. It’s our neighborhood tradition. This year, as it worked out, David had an appointment at one of the middle schools he’s applying to so we weren’t sure if we were going to make it. But we didn’t want to miss it so we registered for the 7:30 slot so we got to go, eat our breakfast, take some shots with Santa and then leave for the appointment.

We ended up making friends with another family during breakfast, their daughter is also super-into science so we decided to make sure to meet again soon. Then when Santa asked the boys what they wanted for Christmas, Nathaniel said a “science kit” but David said “A quick and easy way to take over the world!” which Santa thought was funny and then asked him what he would do once he had the world. This stumped David momentarily so we all laughed. And then someone suggested he give presents to others and then Santa said then he can sit at home and we all laughed again. Our new friends took a photo of all of us with Santa and then we rushed out the door to make it to the school on time.

I am so glad we decided to go despite it being a bit stressful. I feel like having these events we do each year it something I cherish because I can see how the same event feels so different each year as the boys grow up and our life changes.

And here we are for day three.

Today’s story is the Niles Christmas train that we take every year. I think we started taking this train before Nathaniel was born and it’s one of my favorites. We always have a lot of photos so I wanted to make sure to honor that and added a new page to put the ticket and some of our photos.

on the back is a photo of me with the boys and Jake with David.

and here’s the actual page I had for day three. I love that we have a photo of all of us for once. I wrote the story of how we always take this train and what it means to me.

I also journaled about how this year, Jake had to go to San Diego right after and even though it meant he’d have to drive all night and sleep for 4 hours and drive some more, he still came on the train with us. I wanted to thank him and remember how he did this wonderful thing for us even though it made it harder for him.

I’m so grateful for him and for my boys.

Here we go.

One of the things I did yesterday was finally listen to all the videos Ali had in her December Memories class, and I decided I definitely wanted to set some intentions for my album and for December this year. So I changed my opening page to work with that. Here’s the before and after:

before:

closeup:

after:

I stitched two journaling pages together. The left side says Brave and Kind. The right side explains my goals to be brave this holiday season. To feel and act brave. To do what I know I can. To acknowledge when I am brave, too. And my goals to be Kind. To be kind to myself, to Jake, to the kids, the kids to each other, to everyone I see all day long.

I then changed the back to include a photo of us and my usual beginning of “and so it begins”. The before was day two so I won’t post it but here’s the after:

And finally for day 1, I decided to add a new page and I told the story of these little houses my mom sent me from Turkey and how the lights are one of the most magical parts of what makes this whole season feel so magical to me.

So here goes day 1.

Since it’s almost December 1 already, I thought it was time to make sure I post my December Daily before pages. This year, I am using the indescribably beautiful December Memories kit from Gossamer Blue. I love the colors and the simple elegance and whimsical beauty of this kit. It’s perfect for me.

This year, I decided to do less ahead of time so I can craft a bit each day as December unfolds. So I will embellish this album more as I go along. Also, I love how much journaling paper this kit has. For me, this project, like everything else, is all about the stories so the more space to journal, the happier I am.

Here are my pre-pages:

I love the beautiful album from Simple Stories. For now, I just added a strip of gold tape.

the first page has the giant letters and the word december:

closer up:

here’s a way to see it a bit better:

the back:

it’s also shimmery:

i love the greens and pinks and blacks.

the page on the right is a bunch of small pockets.

little bells in pockets:

and sequins.

the back:

the colors make me so happy.

this heart paper is one of the few extras i added.

i love how shimmery it is.

love the simplicity of these pages.

this kit is very graphic and simple shapes. Bold and happy colors.

i added our initials.

more happy paper.

this layout has another one of those multi-pocket pages.

this one has sequins and 3-d “joy” and tree.

and the back:

merry bright.

and the last page. love all these pages just the way they are. can’t wait to fill them with stories.

the other wonderful thing is that this kit comes with planner pages. I added mine to the end of my book.

which i will use with joy, too.

so here we are. happy almost december!