What can I say? December turned out so completely different from what I had envisioned to be and what I had hoped it to be.
Things that were part of our everyday almost since 2020 like scanning QR codes, PCR testing at least every 72 hrs, checking of green codes in public places and other restrictions, were suddenly lifted. Suddenly, the COVID virus spread like wildfire and once again, Shanghai buckled down from COVID infections, everything (at least almost everything) went upside down fast. I was feeling like another lockdown (like what happened in March/April of 2022) was happening as the city suddenly went silent by mid-December.
Schools had already suddenly transitioned to online prior to this. And a few days later, we had to also transition to work-from-home just like everyone else.
And without knowing how I got infected, I was suddenly feverish before Christmas. The following day after I started to have chills, my daughter also was feverish. My son has managed to “escape” the virus. So with all this going on, the only way to stay sane was continue and keep going. Fortunately we were blessed with great weather which somehow made things seem better.
December Daily
This is one of those times that I am thankful I managed to still document our December via December Daily, completing the album before New Year’s Eve. I’ve actually lost count as to how many years I have been doing this project (probably 12 years) and I’m still grateful at the end of this project that I got to document it all, the good and bad or the challenges and the joy that goes on our days in December living in Shanghai.
You can check out the flip-thru of the album I did:
Art Journaling in December
On top of the December Daily, I needed art journaling as a way to give myself some self-care. There was actually two projects but I only got to finish one and the other one was only 15 days worth of spreads/pages.
THE FIRST PROJECT: This is my fourth year to do Care December (it was formerly called Kasia’s Advent Calendar) and every year is different and I love this project. It is easy to relate to the different 20 topics and playing in my art journal is also like a breeze. I totally love this project!
I wish I had the chance to film process videos but it was a challenge during this time. Hopefully this flip-thru will be good enough.
THE SECOND PROJECT: Called @artjournaladvent is hosted by amazing artists Tamara (@marakreativstudio) and Michelle (@raspberrybluesky), two fabulous ladies whom I admire! Their prompts were posted daily and they were quite fun to play along. Unfortunately, I got to Day 15 and completely just couldn’t continue. Nevertheless. I am quite happy I did managed to do more than half.
Here’s some of my pages/spreads in another mini handbound journal.
All-in-all, it has been fun to have something to focus on instead of COVID during this time of the year.
How was your December?
Did you do any form of documenting?
Thank you for stopping by!
Can’t wait to see you at the Summit!
