I really like this post that Noell Hyman at Paperclipping wrote about tailoring December Daily to your style. I go through a similar dilemma to what she describes, and this year I was inspired to just go for it by the fact that it's E's first Christmas and I would love to have that documented somehow. I like the mix of the everyday with the Christmas, so that's not a problem for me, but last year I didn't love all of my foundation pages after they were filled in with pictures and journaling. So, this year, I am using Ali's template, but filling in with paper and embellishments as the day unfolds rather than ahead of time.
I also loved Ali's post today of encouragement - it all counts! It doesn't matter if you don't have a picture for every day. If you want to "break the rules", you can! This is your project, make it great, but don't make it stressful. Love that. Oh, and point #9 was written just for me. ; )
Here is my journaling for December 1:
Today I dressed E in an outfit that I found at a consignment sale earlier this year - it has polka dots and a little penguin on it that says bundle of love. I just love it for the holiday season (and because it has dots and penguins, so perfect!) Tonight at dinner we gave her avocado for the first time, and I was so tempted to change her out of her cute clothes and put her in something else (anticipating a mess), but then decided what the heck, I'll just do a little extra scrubbing the next time I do laundry. I'm glad I did (hello, one little word embrace!) because this photo of her at the table with avocado all over her belly is the perfect beginning to December Daily. It just makes me happy to see that cute smiling face covered in drool, and it is a great picture to tell the story of how we are starting her out with solid foods using Baby Led Weaning - she eats with us, we give her foods that we are also eating, and she is learning how to eat them on her own at her pace. It has made mealtimes so much fun!
