Snow Much Fun

I have so many pictures. I've spent days just putting them on dvds to make sure I don't lose them. I used to print a contact sheet of all the pictures but stopped doing that because it was just too much work. I've created quite a few movie dvds, about 30 minutes in length. I use family pictures, friends' pictures and add music. It's a nice gift for my family and friends and for myself. I sit down, start the dvd and go down memory lane, or just back to yesterday, have a few laughs, maybe some tears too, I enjoy looking at my photos like this, and the music sets the tone, makes looking at them even better.

But making those movie dvds is a lot of work, takes time to gather up all the photos I want to use, the music that will fit with the photos, timing, it's not something I can do with all my photos and sometimes life gets busy, crazy, I just don't have the time.

But something I started doing was just grabbing a few photos, capturing a small moment in time and creating a short video. I post them on YouTube and they are there forever and I can watch them whenever I want and my family and friends can see them as well. As can anyone, mine are for public view but you can create an account and set your account for private viewing only.

It's a great way to save your pictures, adding the music again setting the tone of the pictures. They are there forever, catalogued for you as well. Generations from now, your family can look on YouTube and find those little moments in life where you took a few photos, photos taken for a reason, capturing a moment of your life. So many times our photos get lost. Even with today's technology, as great as it is, we take pictures on our cell phones, awesome cameras small enough to fit in your pocket so you can use it anytime, but we leave them on the memory cards, download them on our computer only to be overwhelmed by how many we have and don't really look at them, enjoy them, share them.

Our cell phones can crash, or we lose them. Our computers crash. Great pictures, great memories but they are never to be seen again.

Below is just a short video of a special family day.

I have a big family and we don't get to see each other as much as we want but for many years now my sister Linda and her husband Bob have hosted a family day party the week before Christmas. As many of us that can make it do and it's a wonderful celebration of family. The setting is perfect, something out of a Hallmark movie. We had a lot of snow this particular year, the fireplace was burning and crackling all day, with Casper, one of my sister's pups, sitting as close to the fireplace as possible. He just loves the fireplace.

There's always music playing softly in the background, laughter, eating...eating...eating. Oh so many desserts! A great time for all, from the youngest to the oldest family member.

Over the years I have watched some of my nieces and nephews go from playing with the kids, sitting in the kitchen with the kids for dinner and now they are at the grown-up table, actually wanting to be a part of our conversations, closing the generation gap.

Keep taking those pictures but try to find a place to store them, someplace safe, someplace where you can find them and your family and friends can too. I find YouTube a good place for me, especially when adding music. Years from now not only will the pictures say something about you and to you, the music will too.

This I call Snow Much Fun. Enjoy!