Oh my, what an undertaking. Let's hope they appreciate all your work.

I’ve been thinking about your project because Emmett’s birth-12mo photobook took me so long, Yours sounded superhuman! It’s amazing how long it can take to put four photos on a page.

Happy with how mine turned out.

Great work Mtn. And Robo Photo organizing is hard. So easy to get waylaid by memories.

Mtn: I love the presentation boxes and flash drives - these will be wonderful gifts for your kids! Are the boxes from Etsy?

So, no chance you'll do mine for me?

Crazy how the time flies. I've been thinking I'll get around to doing this for about 15 years now. I have great respect for your ability to get it done.

Yes, Rubyclaire, Etsy. There are a lot of very cool designs for flash drives on there. A lot of whimsical ones too:

https://awesomestuff365.com/coolest-usb-drives-unique-flash-drives/

Might be good stocking stuffers.

I admire your perseverance. I would given up on the first 1969 default fiasco. Argh!

The flash drives are a great idea. Especially when one wants to use all those cute childhood photos for a collage type slide show at a wedding rehearsal or such. Do people still do that?

You rock, Mtn.

Heads up, if you are thinking of a photo gift, Shutterfly has a big sale that ENDS today.

FREE SHIPPING: on orders $49+ Code: SHIP49

Ends Wed, Dec 12 SAVE 50% ON HARDCOVER BOOKS, GIFTS & SELECT CARDS + 40-50% ON ALMOST EVERYTHING* Code: CHEER

PS the reason i know this is that Mac's app Photos, no longer makes books, as of Sept 2018! O.M.G. When do they tell you this? When you have created your books and you are ready to check out. I am going to need to check IN to a mental facility soon.

you are KIDDING ME!!!!!

I did mixbook and am satisfied with quality. A couple of photos came out a little pink? But generally worked out well.

Oh Mtn...you are my hero. You should see the photo boxes I have to go through & our kids are 46 & 47!!! It is something I so want to do & after the holidays am going to start it in earnest!! Keep me accountable! I have albums up until 1988, but stopped after things got into the digital age. I do need to go through those family albums however, cull through photos & remove to scan to put into keepsake albums for each of our kids. I hope you younger people take my advice & never let your photo organization get so out of control, & I am actually a very organized person. It's just so overwhelming. Keep going Mtn. & if you need to go to the "institution", save a spot for me!!

I hate that Apple won't do books or calendars anymore. They were so easy and just the best quality. Very irritating.

You're a lot smarter than me. I've made scrapbooks. I have not even touched the second year of the first kid yet. And here I had grand plans for the grandchildren... I DID scan all the photos first, so I didn't use the originals.

All I have to do is open the doors where the boxes of photos are kept unarranged to know it's a lost cause.

My son has used shutterfly for years. He takes big climbing and hiking holidays and gets his photos all organized as soon as he is home and then as soon as he sees a shutterfly sale he's ready to go. I have no idea where he gets his organizational skills.

I have had the best time making album books!! It is very time consuming but sooo rewarding as they always come out looking so professional!!

My photo albums - all 8 of them - are dated and labeled. The digital photos are at least arranged by date.

I have yet to take that next time consuming step of creating print albums - my kids are now n their late 30's.

My plan is to hire an intern

Hi,

Ok, one down and 2 to go. Thank goodness they have a "new sale". Ok everyone, now is your chance!

Ends Sat, Dec 15 SAVE 50% ON HARDCOVER BOOKS AND FOIL & GLITTER CARDS + 40-50% ON ALMOST EVERYTHING* Code: DAZZLE

I would also recommend that you print all the digital photos that you love Into print format, even if you do multiple photo books.

Digital files have a 10- 15 year life according to some sites whereas photographs last for a century. The current digital generation is already being called the lost generation because so few photos are printed compared to the old days.

I can attest to this as I had CD video and photo files that were pretty much lost after a decade when I try to look at them. I think right now You are suppose to back everything up to 3 different drives every 5 years. Even then, you risk data loss and corruption.

Sounds like Ike an awesome project. Maybe you will inspire me. At the very least, it is time for digital backup again.

Mtn, thanks for the reminder about photo albums as a special gift. You inspired me to create an album using pictures my MIL carefully collected and put into scrapbooks over a 70+ year period! My husband's maternal aunt/cousins and late uncle and grandparents have lived in the Florida Keys for 50 years. He and his family spent a lot of very happy time down there too and now that we have a house we've reconnected with them. Since I kept all her photos when MIL went into assisted living, I pulled together images of all the family including my husband, MIL, FIL (also now deceased), BIL and the Keys clan in many happy moments. I did a book that I'm giving to at least 4 people, maybe 5 if my daughter wants a copy.

I had a lot of fun organizing the book. I don't want to get my hopes up but I am crossing fingers that my husband who is soooooo hard to both shop for and surprise will be pleased. I can guarantee he won't expect this and it's not something he can pick up for himself at Home Depot LOL.

Really appreciate you sharing the idea!

Running, Despite my wayward ways on the baby books (which I originally did not want to be digital), I have done a lot of other books over the years. Never a dry eye! I am so glad my post inspired you! Merry Christmas.

Mtn......I'm inspired! I'll be sending you 35 years worth of pictures soon. I've already done half the work for you.....earlier this year I sorted through all the pictures and transferred them from grocery bags (the old brown paper kind) into pretty photo boxes. I even have the year indicated on each box. Should be a piece of cake, but you can take your time. Next Christmas will be fine. Thanks!

(Actually I'm in total awe and salute you. This project has been on my mind for a long time and DH keeps saying he's going to scan pics now that he's retired. Uh huh! At this point, I'll be doing great to just throw pics and memorabilia in a nice chest or fancy box for each kid! And how did you manage to do this without the kids seeing?!)

And how did you manage to do this without the kids seeing?!

Ahh, this is where you must remember my entire premise for thinking my kids would love, love a great big book of themselves. The boundless narcissism and self-absorption of the modern American teen! You presume they take some note of how I spend my time. Au contraire, all of this is done en plein aire.

For them, it is a very simple series of nested "if-then" statements, that go something like this.

Is Mom home (yes/no). Is she yelling at me (yes/no). Is she preparing me food (yes/no) etc. Proceed upstairs to bedroom.

Notice there is nothing in there about my well-being, though I suppose they would check on me if they noticed me slumped over. Oh and it has helped that 2 of them were away at school, DS home a few days ago and DD1 home today!

I would also recommend that you print all the digital photos that you love Into print format, even if you do multiple photo books.

Good advice. After this, in addition to the USB gifts, we will be making books of their 5-present lives, but for those they can have input on the design and also pull photos they may not like (ack, esp the girls will be very finicky about this!)

So then we will have printed books of about 2 dozen vacations (a few left to do), some milestone events like parties and such, and all of the kids' lives pretty much. Earlier and older photos that are not digital need to be organized some as well.

The only thing left to do after that, and something I really want to do, is make a book for each of our homes and the decor. These will be a lot easier since there are not nearly as many photos. I would have done them already, but how would that look?

Therapist: So tell me about your childhood.

Patient: I don't remember much and there is very little documentation of my early years.

Therapist: What do you mean?

Patient: Baby books. We have no baby books.

Therapist: No baby book? No photos at all then?

Patient: We have books of our houses. Hardbound, full page color books of each house. With captions and dates. No people.

Therapist: How does that make you feel?

LOL... anyway ...Ta ta for now, i am half way through the last book!

PS Santa, if you are reading, they are really good kids. I am teasing here.

If there was one of those laughing emojis you would get one now. I can so relate. Of course ours have the kids of their own now and are living the life. Hahahahaha!

Mtn....haha...I had forgotten how kids sweep right past their parents at that age!

Annie, that's brilliant! I am going to file that thought away for next holiday season--I bet picture ornaments would be a big hit for the recipients.

Actually I may include making photo albums on a list I'm going to create. I listen to Gretchen Rubin and Elizabeth Craft's podcast Happier. For those who haven't checked out Gretchen Rubin, she is an author/blogger who writes about happiness (surprise), organization and how to use one to create the other. Elizabeth is her sister and their podcast is a charmer

Anyway, they just did a podcast reviewing their success in achieving what they call '18 for 2018' which is a simple version of those ubiquitous life goal challenges. I've decided to create my own 19 for 2019 and I'm going to include making photo albums. I have done a few over the years but inevitably they are rush jobs for holidays (ahem) as is the case this year. If I make it a goal, I can take my time, explore some techniques online that would improve the final look, seek out things like meaningful poems and quotes to supplement etc.

I am super impressed! I'd love to do something like this for me - not sure DS would be thrilled with it or not - but I'd love to look back through his childhood in book form. But man- what a lot of work. And I only have one kid. And we don't take a lot of pictures. I mostly regret that I don't have videos of DS when he was little. I'd love to watch those and hear his little voice again.

Okay, Mtn, you inspired me to finally create a photo book for our 2017 summer vacation to Korea and Hawaii. Because we had soooo many pics, I had procrastinated, but it's done and it will be here by Christmas. Even with the discount it was around $180, yikes, for a photo album.

I have done a Shutterfly photo book for most of our big vacations over the last 10 years, but this was the biggest one. Safari is coming next summer...that'll be a doozy of a photo book!

I am so glad, Sue, I know everyone will enjoy it!

Funny you mention the cost. When I first embarked on this, I was thinking it will be a big impact present where the gift is our time not the cost. Yikes, even with the 50% off, each book was $200 OMG. I didn't really expect that, but after all the work putting it together, I wasn't going to go back and trim. I may regret making them so large, 11x14, but I know i usually like photos to be bigger. I also fell for that very pricey for that "lay flat" upgrade that allow you to do those "centerfold" shots. Heck, i actually fell for every type of upgrade they offered, including a storage box.

And then I have the engraved USBs and those boxes. But oh they will be so pretty. I actually went with this one because I liked the idea of putting a photo with it. They also have them in navy, grey, and Tiffany blue.

I was upset that I had to switch my product to Shutterfly, but I have to give them a big shout out. They have added so many features to their books, and so many options for designing them. Plus, they still had my photos on there from 2005, though I had not done business w them in years. In some cases, they were photos i did not find anywhere else in my files. Whew.

One of the best parts of making the book was doing the captions, and adding in things like scans of their footprints, their baby announcements, etc. I also commissioned DH to write a letter to each of them talking about the day they were born and their first few years. He did a wonderful job, brought tears to my eyes and made me laugh, too.

We finished yesterday. Finally.

Annie - love that tree! we do have a few photo ornaments, but a whole tree! Fab

Running - Even from book 1 to book 3 i got better at it and fancier. There are soooooo many options and embellishments and features. And if you have the right dates on your photos, the autofill feature is a great start. Enjoy!

Mtn, your kids are going to love those books. What a special gift.

I received my albums last night, and they are SPECTACULAR! Mtn is right, Shutterfly has come a long way in the past few years. Not only were there more layout and design options but the quality of the paper and materials in general is superb. The album I made was only 20 pages long since it consisted strictly of family pictures in one particular setting so I was a bit worried it would be two hard covers with a sliver of book. Nope, there are front and end pieces and the paper quality is thick and beautiful. I am so impressed.

Bonus points to Shutterfly because although I ordered last week, using the free shipping option once the order was in process the delivery range was Dec 21--25(!). When I called to ask if I could upgrade (and pay) for a faster shipping speed the customer service agent instead upgraded it for free.

Last but not least curated photo albums are such a great gift to fit with the spirit of both lightening up on stuff while keeping small tangible things that mark the deepest core of what we cherish: friends and family and happy memories. Another thank you to Mtn for sparking this topic and this wonderful gift idea.

Next year. I have my gift ideas for next year. Thank you. Merry Christmas!

I have used shutterfly to create 5 vacation albums so far and find their total flexibility on page layout and text placement the best. I too spring for the lay flat option which gives me a place for spreads for my panoramic shots, and the quality is wonderful. I'm always amazed at how quick the turnaround time is too.

Here's a page from our latest book on our trip to New Mexico.

Keep your eyes peeled throughout the year as every once in awhile they will actually offer a 20-page photo book for free. But it's usually with short notice so you either have to work quickly or have a book prepared and wait for the offer. When I ordered this book, they had a deal for free metal luggage tags which I customized with our photos...a great help when trying to distinguish your bag from everyone elses. So they do have good deals.

This xmas, I wasn't happy with the restrictions on layouts for our xmas cards from shutterfly, so I went with vistaprint. I'll probably not use them again though as I wasn't delighted with the quality of the paper used for the card or the envelopes.

Annie, that is gorgeous. I would love to see your books sometime! What fun.

The first one i completed arrived yesterday. I did not open the shrink wrap but I am a bit worried. Growing up, pictures were always too small, yes? Always straining to see a face. So I tend to think bigger is always better. But I did an 11x14 book, and i fear the photos may look gargantuan. Rule of thumb, baby books should not be larger than actual babies. No wonder it was $$$, the thing is ridiculous. Looks like I overcompensated ... LOL

I bet they're amazing! Your reaction reminds me of the creative process image...I'll link it since it has a bad word.

https://cdn.boldomatic.com/content/post/YwazLA/The-Creative-Process-1-This-is-awesome-2-This-is-t

Rule of thumb, baby books should not be larger than actual babies.

Hahaha

Now you've done it...I'll bring my NM book with me to show you....I figured you might enjoy seeing it as you were just there...

Yes, do!