Step 1: Don't lose or kill any kittens.
Step 2: Tell our Christmas story to rekindle the holiday magic.
I'm doing really well with step 1 and I've gotten to start on step 2, which really has me excited. I feel like I need to buy some glitter.
Growing up in multicultural house means my traditions aren't quite the standard American kinds. I also married into a family that still practices some Old World holiday customs, too. The stories of our Decembers, old and new, are simply worth recording.
When Debbie gave us a sneak peak of the class, I knew I had to do this. I had an idea from her Story Coach lessons what to expect, so I was excited to get started.
A brief description of class:
Many of the most-loved and best remembered stories play out in a story form described by Joseph Campbell as "the hero's journey." This class has prompts and page ideas for visual storytelling that have you telling Your December Journey, from the heralds, to the challenges, mentors, special tools and the return to the known world and what you take forward.I opened Lesson 1 and printed out the hand-out:
I immediately jumped into the prompts after the reading the written material. Debbie has a talent for asking thought provoking questions. Somehow she reaches right into your mind, yanks and tugs until the relevant stuff is down on the page in an organized fashion (something I need help with constantly). I'm not saying she's magic, but she's magic. I filled out 7 pages of prompts in under 20 minutes. Out of that, I have a few pages I know I need to make to tell our story.
The first page I decided to make was the "call to action" page. Since I becoming a part of my husband's family, I am given an amaryllis at the start of the holiday season each year. My mother in law has a phallic nickname for the plant that I won't get into, but is riot to hear her, a very proper lady, say. It usually doesn't bloom until Christmas, making it a natural advent calendar.
 |
| Supplies: Mommyish: Hipster Holiday; CD Muckosky: Winter With You; Fonts: Cassidy by Audacious Designs |
Now for the fun part: I'm giving away a seat in the class!! (If you already purchased the class, you'll get a $24 gift card good for any other GIS/MSD classes.)
How to enter: Simply leave a comment telling me why you want to tell your December story. I will draw the winner on Thursday, November 21, 2014.
Want more chances to win? Follow the links for the blog hop:
I plan to do a December Daily album (hybrid) this year, with a mixture of photos and stories of our holiday preparation and simple, daily happenings. I also plan to feature more in-depth memories of 2013 with more detailed scrapbook pages. I am already doing lots of prep work, hoping that this will make my chances of completing this project much higher! I am excited about this project because I know my family will enjoy re-living these treasured holiday memories in years to come!
ReplyDeletei want my nephews and niece to learn how Christmas is celebrated in the Philippines
ReplyDeleteWhat a great post, thanks for sharing! For me I definitely want to get deeper into what things mean to me, and why it's magical. Rather than just a photo and some embellishments which is what last year's December Daily looked like. This class sounds perfect for that! Thanks for the chance to win :)
ReplyDeleteI would like to do a then and now album for our 5-year-old and how we did celebrated in the olden days, 1970s-1980s comparing to now.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE that you did a page focusing on your Amaryllis :)
ReplyDeleteI want to *finally* do a December Daily before my children graduate college
Why? Because I've got two lottle kids that are growing sooo fast and I would like to preserve this christmases when all the magic is still intact!
ReplyDeleteWhY? to remember it before my kids are to big
ReplyDeleteI've never told our December story. I'd like to change that now that we have two small grand children; maybe try and incorporate some then and now type pages.
ReplyDeleteWhy? Because I want to be able to look back in years to come and remember when the kids were little and the season was full of magic and wonder for them.
ReplyDeleteI would love to document my story to remember all the fun traditions we seems to do without even thinking about it. This would have been so fun when my kids were little. We did so many fun traditions. Now I want to document it for my grandson.
ReplyDeletebecause next year my story will be different than this year. there will be a lot of changes in our lives in 2014...
ReplyDeletelovely! getting an amaryllis is on my christmas wishlist!
ReplyDeleteI want to tell my story most of all because we have aging family members. I want them to be a big part of the story. Also I want to remember the fun and excitement. Thank you for the chance to win a spot!
ReplyDeleteRoberta V.
I think part of the reason I like to do it truly is to use the fun pretty things to create the book! But I took part in a Photo project a couple years ago and I loved the way it had me living in the minute each day and actually slowed down the days as opposed to making it more frantic!
ReplyDeleteMy kids are grown (the last is in college) and I want to document our traditions and those stories we tell every year as we decorate and go through the season.
ReplyDeleteBecause my kids are in college and getting older, I want to be able to document these Christmases with just the three of us until our family gets larger.
ReplyDeleteI want to tell our December story because it's my three year old's first Christmas with family. We have lived out of state for the last 7 years, so this year is special.
ReplyDeleteI've never done a holiday project but with two little kids now the holidays seem twice as magical. =)
ReplyDeleteI love documenting the change in friends and family and events from the year as part of the holiday experience. Thanks for the chance to win!
ReplyDeleteI like to document things in December because some are things are the same year by year and others are new.
ReplyDeleteWhy I want to tell? I feel it is quite selfish, I just want to be able to remember. I do not know if the rest of my family will want to, but there will be a mini album waiting for them if they do. Time flies so fast.
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping by telling my story I will find joy in the season that should be the happiest and most joyful of the year.
ReplyDeleteChristmas is the most magical holiday for children. We have seven grandchildren, and I love to see their joy and anticipation throughout the season. I like doing holiday activities with them, and I love taking pictures of these activities along the way. In the past doing a Daily December seemed cumbersome and just too much, so I'm hoping this approach will make it easier, but capture our memories and traditions in a new way.
ReplyDeleteThis year, everyone will be home for Christmas and it just seems right.
ReplyDeleteI've never heard an Amaryllis called that! I have daffodils and hyacinths planted already but not an Amaryllis. Why do I want my December story told? For the same reasons I want any of our stories told - they matter and by recording them we give ourselves the joy of reliving them at a later date.
ReplyDeleteI am looking forward to documenting our newest addition this December. He was a surprise and has two older siblings. THey think he is completely and wonderfully marvelous! They are so excited this is his "first Christmas!" I want to have all this recorded so for years to come we can look back and enjoy!!
ReplyDeletecuz ya got to remember december; it's special.
ReplyDeleteOk your writing is hysterical! You had me cracking up on two counts (I'll let you guess which ones). I wasn't really planning on doing anything else besides Project Life for December but now after reading all of these blogs I'm getting convinced that this class sounds amazing!
ReplyDeleteTo remember the hear and now of this beautiful season. to share with others.
ReplyDeleteBecause my kids are growing up way to fast and I can't remember anything without something to jog my memory! LOL!
ReplyDeleteI want us to remember our traditions and most importantly the excitement in my children!
ReplyDeleteI just want to document some of our stories and traditions, especially as our granddaughter will become more aware of Christmas. And like Janet commented above, my memory needs jogging, even to remember what happened yesterday.
ReplyDeleteI want to capture the essence and magic of the season in an album for us to look at in the future. I did one in 2010 and we look at it all the time. My boys (5 & 7) and hubby are excited to help write, draw and photograph the spirit of the season together.
ReplyDeleteI just want to record our traditions and how they have evolved over the years, having grown up in England and now living in Australia.
ReplyDeleteyou're so funny Carrie! awesome story :)
ReplyDeleteI haven't done a December Daily so I'm ready to tackle it! Thanks for the chance to win!
ReplyDeleteI think it will be fun. My husband has been diagnosed with liver cancer and this may be his last Christmas so I wanted to try something different.
ReplyDeleteChristmas is my very favorite holiday! How could I not scrap it? :)
ReplyDeleteLeeAndra
i want to tell our story because like you we are a multi cultural family and it would be interesting to document how the traditions have changed/adapted
ReplyDeleteThe Christmas holiday has a lot of meaning for me and was always the big holiday in my family. I'd like to document my story to encourage me to be more mindful, share my perspective on the holidays and record memories for generations to follow.
ReplyDeleteMy son will be gone for Christmas time for the next two years - and I want to be able to share with him when he returns the things that he may have missed.
ReplyDeleteI realize time is slipping away, and I may be deployed soon. So I want to capture the season for my boys as well as for me.
ReplyDeleteI love memory keeping, and Christmas is just a part of that. I record memories all year long.
ReplyDeleteWith my boys grown I want to capture our quirky traditions and new things we are trying to make the holiday a wonderful time. Thanks for the chance to win
ReplyDeleteChristmas is a special time of the year and deserves it's own story.
ReplyDeleteI am new to memory keeping, don't usually add much journaling to my pages, and I think this might be a good way to get started with it.
ReplyDeletei want to do a december daily because this season is so crazy and i tend to speed through the days. i want to slow it down and pause to enjoy the moments.
ReplyDeleteMost of all, to be able to remember for myself. To have a record of all the small things which I will forget. To focus and be present.
ReplyDeleteI want to remember the little things we do
ReplyDeleteI want to tell the story of everything in my life. It never occurred to me when I first started scrapbooking. At that time I was just interested in recording my children and what they were doing. The I got to thinking about how much I would love to know why may mom's and dad's Christmases (and daily life in general) were like. That is when I started telling random stories that I remember. So much fun. So rewarding.
ReplyDeleteI am hoping to document my Holiday this year as it is the last Christmas my daughter will be here before she heads off to college.
ReplyDeleteI want to make sure that I capture the traditions we have that make the holidays special for our family.
ReplyDelete