Opportunities abound for you to capture, share, give, and make memories over the holidays as your family gathers together.
Capture: Ask the family elders…or everyone for that matter…to document some memory from their life. Whether it was grandpa’s years of training a trick horse, grandma’s stories of how she raised 4 young children while grandpa was away during the war. An Aunt recording all of her delicious recipes for the family to create a book and enjoy it for generations. My own task for this Christmas is to encourage my Grandma Reta (92 years old) to do a voice or video recording of her reciting the poems that she has written and are preserved in her mind only. She is resistant to doing it because she looks so wrinkled and her voice is shaky. I will give her the equipment to do it (likely just using audio since it will be easier for her to do on her own). I will tell her how valuable it will be for generations to come and tell her examples of what other families have captured from their relatives.
Share: While you are visiting relatives this holiday season, take the time to gather up all of the old media that is hiding away in their attic, basement, closets and under the bed. Take on the project to preserve these memories for later generations….you gather it up and Leave A Legacy will do all the work. We have one client who mailed us his collection of films and videos just last week. He told me how to combine the materials so that each member of the family will receive a disk this year. Every year at Christmas they will each bring their disk and make a tradition of watching the old films of days gone by together.
Give: This year give the gift of memories. What other gift will last for generations, and have priceless value and have minimal cost? Examples of gift options:
Photo gifts (use a child’s artwork or fun photos and make gifts for the young and not so young). Puzzles , pillows, tote bags, ceramic tiles, t-shirts, ornaments, pencil holder, cutting board, water bottle, and steel coffee mug are but a few of the options that we offer.
Video gifts (from your films, camcorder tapes, records, VHS tapes, photo slides, and even reel-to-reel). All of these can be transferred to DVD or CD. You can transfer one video for just $15…but the value is priceless. Additional copies just $7.50.
Photo books: take a collection of photos from a recent trip and at Leave A Legacy either you can get creative on the computer or we can do it for you and create a special book for your family. A selection of photos through the years of Mom or Dad can make a very nice tribute book. A year ago we went on a family trip to Hawaii. I have made a lengthy photo book of our trip with all the photos taken by me, my kids and the 2 grandmas. I also typed up pages of the journal that I wrote while on the trip. For Christmas, I’ll be printing out 2 more copies of the book for the 2 grandmas. What a unique and priceless gift.
Make: Remember to make and record new memories from today’s holiday celebration. Remember the still and video camera for all of the productions that your kids and grandkids perform in. Capture what the tree looks like every year. Write out what each child’s favorite gift was and take their smiling photo with it. Record what they asked Santa to bring them and their opinion as to whether they were good enough this year to get gifts.
Leave A Legacy wishes you the merriest of Holidays and encourages you to capture, share, give, and make lots of memories. We will be closed the week between Christmas and New Years.