Simple Memory Keeping
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At the end of the year, I start to feel all the feels about looking back and looking forward. This year was a sweet one for our family—lots of travel, settling into our home, and feeling more at ease with our homeschooling systems and routines. I know that not all years will look like this—so I am thankful that this year has held a lot of sweetness. Looking ahead, I’m not sure what 2024 will bring, but I do hope it brings growth, togetherness, and joy too.
For many years, I’ve felt a little stuck about how to best preserve all these family memories when it seems like life is zipping by so fast. I’ve tried online photo books (which are fun—but more time-consuming than I liked). I’ve also tried printing off a lot of photo to display and keep. Even though I loved having them physically in my hands, I didn’t really do anything with them. Oops.
This year I was determined to stick to something that I knew I could do (aka simple!). So, I grabbed a basic photo album, got my pictures printed (a few times throughout the year), and spent a little time slipping them into their spots (and writing down little notes about what we did). I mostly put in travel photos (since it seems that’s when we take a gazillion photos), but also added in some everyday photos and family fun at the end of the album too. Plus, I plan to grab a storage box to put in all the odd and ends from travel, life, and events.
Here’s what I used:
I bought this photo album. I actually bought two (one for this year and one for 2024). I like that they have five photos (mixed vertical and horizontal) on each page. Plus, they were on sale—so that made them super affordable! And now I’m ready for next year ;)
I print my photos using Mpix. I’ve printed with other companies, but Mpix is my absolute favorite. I’ve been so impressed with the quality and clarity of the photos. I even got a few pics from our Italy trip printed as an 8x10s and use them as art prints in our home. Ps. You can use this link for $10 off your first order. They also have so many other wonderful products to create!
For our trip to San Diego, I gave the boys each a disposable camera and got the photos developed. It was such fun to add those photos to our album. And also give our kids a taste of our childhood ;) I have this photo album that I’ll give them to put the extra photos in.
For photo and memory boxes, I am tempted to get this simple one for storing the extra photos and tidbits I have from the year (like ticket stubs, medals, drawings, etc). These ones are also on my list.
I made 4x6 inserts to add to the album to slip in and write about those details from our trips or everyday life. Ps. you can download them for free if you want to have them too!
Whether you make fancy scrapbooks, make photo books online, or do it the old fashioned way (like me!)—keep it up! Find a way to preserve and keep those memories even if you’d never done anything before (it’s never to late to try something new!).
Someday, it will be such a treasure to have these to look through and enjoy.
