Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Our Family Calendar Gift

I wanted to post a new story on this blog today and have been straining for hours to think of an appropriate topic. While I was wondering what to write about, I've been printing out pages of a calendar that I prepare each year to give to our family members for Christmas. Do you see the obvious here? It took me awhile to see it.

Eight years ago I started the tradition of making a calendar for the upcoming year that my husband and I could give to our children at Christmas. Our family was adding a new grandchild each year early in this decade and it was becoming increasingly difficult for me to keep track of birthdays, anniversaries, and special holidays. I found this calendar to be a great solution for this problem. I simply enter the birthday in the appropriate day and have that visual reminder hanging in our kitchen throughout the year. I've illustrated each month with a collage of photos of all the members of our family. Our immediate family now numbers 33 so it hasn't been hard to fill up the space for each month!

I print the calendars at home on my inkjet and take them to a copy service to have a spiral binding added. It's an easy-to-do project. I've kept all the calendars I've made and have found them to be wonderful "time capsules"---a photo journey into our family's growth over the past 10 years.

Other genealogists might want to consider doing the same thing someday. They make good gifts and good keepsakes. If I'm able to make them, they're EASY! I'm not a crafty person. But my family seems to be pleased with these. Give it a try!

2 comments:

Lisa Jamison said...

I love the calander

Taylorstales-Genealogy said...

What a great idea! I did something similar a couple of years ago for a family reunion. I put many of my deceased family members wedding dates and birth dates in the appropriate month/date. I used them as a fund raiser and it too was quite successful! I love the idea for an immediate family tradition. Thanks for sharing!