A Labour of Love

My family draw names out of the hat to decide who is buying for which member. This year it ended up that I was buying for my brother. I asked him if there was anything in particular he really wanted and he replied 'a CD or DVD, anything action or NZ'.

Now, this made me nervous...my brother buys a lot of DVD's and CD's and I was worried about picking one that he already had. There's a bit of pressure involved - this could possibly be my brother's only Christmas present and I wanted to get him something he'd like.

So that's when I threw his suggestion out the window and tried to dream up a super pressie (in hindsight I've decided that this is what I don't like about the name drawing/buying a present for one person with the pressure that it could be there only present and that I need to find them the ultimate gift)

I decided to make my brother a photo album with pictures of grandparents (3/4 now deceased), parents, himself, my siblings, rellies, friends and nibblings. This was not something I could do on my own.

I emailed everyone related and asked for any photo's of family stuff that might appeal to my brother and luckily the family responded. Photos came of reunions, weddings, Christmas get-togethers, relations etc - dating back as far as 1910 and as current as last week.

I saved them, compiled a disc of 190 odd and had them printed. Last weekend the album was constructed painstakingly (painstakingly when you lay them all out and realise you have too many...or that once you've stuck them in after the 3rd attempt at arranging that you've left out a page in the album - easy to do with the acid free tissue like sheets between pages)

Couriered to Hawkes Bay on Monday to ensure it a) definitely got there and b) that it arrived in time

And today, Christmas Day, a get a phone call from my brother in tears. He loves it and is really chuffed.

Phew - mission accomplished. Super gift status reached.

The front - a photo taken 1986, my father and brother together - not orginally a b&w pic but I made it that so that it would match the front of of the album

The start of the album - each set of grandparents had a page which included their wedding pic

Then there's a page each of Mum and Dad as children, and then together

Followed by Luke's arrival and then pages of him growing up and family pics

It included events - balls, birthdays and here, camping out at a family farm to see in the millenium

Lots and lots of family weddings and unfortunately a funeral, truly, it's like 4 weddings (in my immediate family) and a funeral

The arrival of different generations - here is my first babe, Luke's first niece

And more recent photos of get-togethers and new additions to the family

Altogether, the photo contained pics of 5 generations within it's 40 pages.

Family - there are lots and lots more photos of all of you and your weddings/children/graduations etc - I just didn't put up every picture as I wasn't sure how you'd feel about those pages being on my blog. xoxo