The Calendar

Every Christmas, I make my mom a calendar for the upcoming year that has pictures of her very most favorite things in the world. . . her kids and grandkids. I started making my mom this calendar years ago when Clay was on his mission. I specifically had him send me pictures that my mom had never seen before and therefore she was in complete shock when she saw her calendar full of pictures of her kids from the previous year.

Now after 12 years, this calendar has become one of the most highly anticipated projects of the year. My sister-in-laws graciously send me pictures of their individual families which has been an enormous help. Trust me, before the boys got married, it was extremely slim pickings seeing how they never took pictures of themselves. Jocelyn and Heather have made this so much easier. Every year Nate makes fun of me and keeps trying to get me to do a digital one, but I am a purist, so I spend countless hours cropping, cutting, gluing and coming up with funny captions. As you can see, it is a serious undertaking and every year I vow that I will never make another one. And then when I give it to my mom and she looks at it over, and over, and over again, my icy heart softens and I think, "Well, maybe I could do it one more time. . . "