annual family year books

Quick holiday gift tip slash family tradition tip slash good idea coming your way! (and FYI, I'm not doing a Monday giveaway + review this week or until after Christmas since most of the shops are overwhelmed with holiday orders). Last year we started a great tradition. We also were able to backtrack and include the year before too, making it officially a tradition that our family has held every since we were a family. Since Lily was in my belly! A family year book.

though, this family is not mine :) source here.

 Like highschool, but wayyyyyyyyyy better! Because it's ALL people you love, all pictures you love, and all memories you actually *want* to remember. Ahem.

I really recommend My Publisher, it's the site I've used in the past and have only good things to say about them. Though it's a US company and shipping + duty can get pricey, I've scoured the web for other companies and none come close in price or quality. Some appear less expensive, but then you take into account the HUGE discounts My Publisher offers, and they're not. Some (Canadian companies) have less shipping fees and no duty, but their base price is more than double that of My Publisher). In the end, you can't beat it. And right now they have a BUY ONE GET ONE FREE sale on photo books. Making them ze BEST gift for family members. See, we make a family yearbook every year, then order 3 more for every set of grandparents the kids have been blessed with. Meaning, we pay for 2 photo books and get 4. Perfecto.

I'm having a blast looking through the pictures we've taken over 2012. It's SO hard to choose which ones to add and this year since we have an extra family member, it's even harder to fit them all into the pages. After 20 pages included in the base price you pay $1 per extra page, which really adds up when you're taking pictures as often as I am. But so worth it. In fact, these are the only printed pictures we have IN OUR HOME. Including wedding pics! It's a digital world, right? But every family needs photo albums when they're old and grey to look back on, I reason :)

Other than fitting in all of our pics it's been hard to make sure each family member gets equal representation. For example, there are way more pictures of me and the kids than of Brad and the kids since I'm with them all day. And my parents are a bit camera-happy so when they're with the kids they snap hundreds, so we have more of them than of the other grandparents (and we probably see them two or so more times per year than Brad's parents since they're a bit more mobile). And who else to add? We lived with Ellen and Neal and their son Everett for two weeks in Louisville and after that they felt like family, so we had to add a picture of them! Plus Morgan and Sam who are resident Auntie and Uncle to Lily and Oli. It's hard getting everyone in, but a worthy goal, for sure.

How do you capture memories? 

Do you do family year books/ photo albums? 

In such a digital age, do you still even print pictures? (we don't!)