Holiday Traditions, part one

It is time for me to begin working on one of my most labor-intensive holiday traditions:

The Year in Pictures.

Every year, I make a photo album that is a quick recap of the boys' year, and I give a copy to each set of  grandparents and save a copy for each of the boys.  (I have no idea if the boys will even want their books when they're older.  Probably not, since they're boys, but I still have to make sure that they each have one copy of each year's book lest they cry favoritism at some future point in time.)

Why is this so labor intensive?  Well, for starters, just uploading the four hundred plus photos that I take during the year takes about an hour.  Then I have to pick the cover color and page design.  I know, wah wah, give me a break, right?  But after making seven of these year after year, it's kind of hard to not repeat your choices.  And then I have to pick the pictures.  This is the fun part - I love reliving the year, picking the cutest pictures and then arranging them on the pages.  But there's more to it than that.  I have to make sure that each of the boys are (pretty much) equally represented.

Last, there's the witty captions.  I think this year I'll have to have a glass of wine before I start writing captions.  As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, my writing flows better when the wine flows.  Should make this year's book a fun read, right?

I'd better get started.  My first batch of pictures are almost uploaded, and I need to get at least three or four pages laid out before I go to bed (my editor has me on a tight deadline).