For 18 years, one of our standby Christmas presents has been a handmade (okay, hand-compiled) calendar, comprised of pictures of the kids from throughout the year.
I simply chose a bunch of cute pictures, uploaded them, dragged and dropped, and ordered. I alternated between the two of them, or individual pictures.
December had stockings, October was costumes, July was s’mores or the beach or a hike, each birthday month was a solo shot, and there were always milestones like driver’s licenses or mega Lego structures etc. Then we wrapped one for each grandparent, aunt, or uncle, and boom, easy-peasy!
This year I realized we didn’t have enough “cute” pictures to assemble.
The kids are still cute, but they aren’t kids anymore. They’re teenagers — or as we fondly call our eldest, adults-with-a-small-A. (Shout out to Kate for that term.) They are either busy with their own lives — school, work, friends or screen time — that they aren’t posing anymore. And to be perfectly honest, Dungeons and Dragons or the Sims don’t afford the same photo ops as say, T-ball. Plus, we didn’t do any exciting trips or events this year as a family, so there go any cute two-fer shots in front of Cinderella’s Castle or pictures on the beach.
There were milestones this year, but some were not picture-worthy, or too candid. I give you this as an example: How do we commemorate the fact that Thomas can now swallow pills?
I do have a few pictures from when Thomas, Matt and I took the SMART Train, but Thomas has decided to pose for pictures with a slightly goofy, open-mouthed, empty expression, so all the pictures this year look like he’s drugged. (And I do mean all. He is committed to this “photo face.” The school picture is a gem, I tell you.)
The picture-worthy milestones ended up being more about groups than solo pictures. For example, Megan graduated this year, but chose not to walk. Her graduation celebration was Grad Nite and a nice dinner out with us and the grandparents. The pictures I have include one of us — which is great, and fulfills a promise I made to get in more pictures myself, but those are not the photos I use in the calendar.
My solution was to contact my sister-in-law and offer her the gig. She has three boys under 5, and if that isn’t a picture-palooza, I don’t know what qualifies. We share the same grandparents and aunt and uncle combos (except for my dad), and she has a whole set of relatives on the other side of the family to set up, calendar-wise. Win-win, right?
The solution is perfect, except of course for the grief of ending a longstanding tradition. Not only will I not have the joy of flipping to a new month and seeing a reminder of a fun time we had as a family, but I now have to come up with gifts to replace the calendar.
I’m honestly torn between which problem is more pressing, or depressing, as the case may be.
In our house, Santa brings everyone a calendar with their stocking. Matt gets a swimsuit issue for his workbench in the garage, I get a big planning calendar for doctor’s appointments and other reminders, and the kids each get a current favorite TV character or theme. (For example, last year Megan got a Hamilton calendar — you may have heard the squeal.)
Thomas is tricky, as his favorites are fleeting, but last year I hit the jackpot with an idea to compile a calendar of photos of the cat, Posey, whom he loves and adores. (Strangely enough, while I have to scrounge for pictures of my children, I had plenty of our fur-baby. The majority of the photos are of Posey stretched out on one of my quilting projects, because she is in charge of quality control, but I also had pictures of her on Thomas’ lap, or wistfully staring out the window at birds, etc.) The calendar was perfect. Mommy Santa scores again!
I’ve been ruminating on a suitable replacement gift for the relatives, but so far I’ve come up empty. Unless … do you think they’d all enjoy a framed picture of Posey?
Juliana LeRoy wears many hats, including wife, mother, paraeducator and writer. She can be spotted around Windsor gathering material, or reached at [email protected].
