Fruit Inspection

One of my favorite things to do during the holidays is take our annual Christmas card pictures. I try to do something creative each year. Something a little more “us”. Of course I’m not above stealing cute ideas. I’m always on the lookout for cute photo-ops!

The subdivision we moved into earlier this year is a gated community. The gate itself is black, attached to gray stacked stone, and then the remainder of the picket fence that goes out to the road is also black. It’s very pretty with lots of nice landscaping.

But the one thing I noticed almost immediately was the perfect climbing tree just inside the entrance. I’ve known for months that this was the spot where I’d take the Christmas cards pictures this year.

I had an image in my mind of what I wanted the kids to wear, but when I went shopping, the stars were not aligned. I couldn’t find a thing I liked that matched! So I went with plaid, scarves and hats and silently thanked the photo editing software people that I could easily make all the pictures black and white, so as not to temporarily blind unsuspecting friends and family members.

Later that night I edited until my little heart was content. I liked the way the cards turned out, but something continued to bother me. As much as I tried to push it out of my mind, it remained.

You see, after our house fire last year, I was fortunate to be able to salvage most of my scrapbooks and photo albums. All of my kids finished albums were in a safe and the unfinished ones were in a room with smoke damage. The pictures were in boxes and most were able to be kept, or at the very least (thanks to online photo storing sites), reprinted.

When we moved into this house in March I unpacked every box and some things were missing. Most of the things were in my scrapbooking room. A Disney photo album filled with all of our family’s trips to DW beginning with the first time my sister took me, 8 weeks pregnant with Savannah. A 12×12 box where I had been saving pictures from Jeremy’s side of the family, some were old family pictures given to me by his grandmother. And there was a Christmas album where I recorded something special from each year that Jeremy and I have been married.

Each year I saved a Christmas card for myself and put it in that book. There were a couple of years where I wasn’t able to do a card due to being enormously pregnant or moving, or both! Those were the years I wrote about family traditions. Letters to Santa or cookie bakes. It didn’t matter. It was a special book to me and I looked forward to filling it for many Christmas’ to come.

Now, eleven years into it, I’m saddened to think I have to start over with this year. And there is a nagging part of me that says “let it go, it’s not important”. And I do know that. I know that insurance companies make mistakes and loose things. I know that I should be grateful for all the things I do have instead of focusing on the very tiny number of things I didn’t get back. But I’ve resolved within myself to grieve the loss. And I will eventually let it go.

I think it will help the process along that I have such great memories of this year and these pictures to put in a new album. As a matter of fact, just writing this post is making me feel better already. Merry (early) Christmas everyone!