More Precious Holiday Memoirs…..

Before the holidays I provided the hand/foot print possibility for gifts and personal remembrances.  Another wonderful way to remember your child/children each year is photo tree ornaments.  Truly one of the most precious times of our Christmas preparation is bringing out the photo ornaments of our children.  (I store them separately from the rest of our ornaments)  Now in their late 20s and on our kids revel over how cute they were as babies.  We can hardly believe they were little towheads with no teeth!  Ha!  It is easy to purchase ornaments made to house photos.  The best time of the year financially is right now.  Most stores have cut prices on Christmas items to 50% or below.  Find the ornaments you want to keep and put family or individual photos in them.  Actually, I encourage you to do both.  Have an ornament with baby, no matter how young he is now.  Then be sure to take a photo including you.  These photos will be one of the things your kids enjoy most as they grow.  It is simple.  However, start now and do it each season.  Make sure you put the baby’s name and age on the photo you enclose.

If you don’t want to purchase ornaments you can make your own out of construction paper & glue a photo to them.  The paper can be cut in the shape of an ornament, a star, a round ball, and on and on.  Really any color paper is great.  Be sure to write on the back of the paper you cut: the first and last name of your child, the year it represents, and the age at the time the photos is taken.  Remember to laminate your home made ornaments so they will last.  You will not regret making this a Christmas tradition!!!

These ornaments make wonderful and truly memorable gifts for grandparents and others who love your children.  For the person who has everything these are irreplaceable!!!

Another idea:  We do a photo Christmas card and a newsy Christmas letter for friends & family.  Something I wish I would have done over the years is save one for posterity.  This can be done in a notebook with those clear page inserts.  Simply slip in your card and letter each year.  There are also companies printing such memoir books.  Or, if you are really creative you can design your own.  You spend the time and effort to send out Christmas/holiday wishes, saving a retrievable copy for yourself seems like the least you can do for the future!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!   JUDY

December Is Upon Us!!!!!

Now we are in the midst of the hustle and bustle of the holidays.  It is a wonderful time, especially through the eyes of a child.  Even though your baby may be too young to remember what is going on this year, the photos you take of each other and of baby will be a beautiful reminder of this time in your lives.  Be sure to snap those photos!!!  Tuck them away in the cloud or on a flash drive for future use.  As each of my sons has been married I have made a photo album of baby and childhood photos of him for his finance’s bridal shower.  Revisiting those infant photos is such a precious experience.  Passing them on to my future daughters in law has been so much fun.  If you do not take the photos now you will not have them later!!

Years ago a gracious lady named Emily Barnes provided holiday preparation seminars to help those of us who are overwhelmed with it all.  Her motto: Get started early!  Actually, she encouraged us new wives and moms to start planning for the holidays at the after Christmas sales of the previous year.  Her ideas were many and creative.  The ones that helped me most over the years are these:  1.  Designate an unused cupboard as your stash place.  It needs to be a secret.  Then, as you find special and low priced items for those for whom you will purchase gifts hide them away there.  This way you won’t find them in February…..  2.  Plan ahead.  Always have a place in your thoughts for the holidays.  You will be amazed how many ideas and purchases will come your way when you are least expecting them.  3. Get started early.  My goal each year is to have my cards finished by Thanksgiving weekend.  When the kids were younger this meant taking our Christmas photo in October so I would have time to design our card, get it printed, sign and address the envelopes, then mail them.  I want to spend a little special time on each card, adding personal notes.  This takes time.  When this does not happen early and I am in December trying to organize the festivities while doing cards, they are no fun at all.  The stress of it takes all the fun out!

Another enjoyable holiday project for me has been to put away a bit of my holiday budget for those half priced after Christmas items.  The week after Christmas I visit some of those touristy spots where there are beautiful ornaments and gifts I would never pay full price for.  After Christmas the owners of these establishments are trying to unload what they can for end of the year inventory and taxes.  At the marked down prices I found lovely things I could never have purchased any other way.  They have made beautiful gifts and wonderful additions to my own holiday memorabilia.  So much fun!

These are thoughts to tuck away until after the holidays.  But it never hurts to consider them!!!

Enjoy,  JUDY