B+C+B+C+B+C: Family Calendar time!

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Family Calendar time!

The annual custom family calendars are DONE! Yay!
Usually I'm scrambling this time of year to get them finished and mailed out.
But I planned well ahead, and was strongly motivated by a great online coupon for printing these by Dec 7th at Walgreens. Usually I use Snapfish or Shutterfly, but I just realized I get free shipping (ie, in-store pickup in ONE HOUR!) at Walgreens.
I've been creating Smith Family Calendars every year since I was 13 or 14.
I think I've only missed a year or two between then and now. I *think* most of my siblings appreciate them.
I know my parents do.

This way, there's no excuse to forget birthdays!

The bottom part of the calendars has a picture of each birthday boy/girl on their date. 39 Smith birthdates to keep straight!!
The top part of the calendar is always a collage of pictures, and sometimes words/quotes/designs, etc.
Obviously this year it's a picture collage of family members holding up cardboard letters, spelling out the names of the months.

Kinda cheesy, but I had this idea literally 2 or 3 YEARS ago, and finally planned ahead enough to make it happens.
I had to take the pictures over the whole year, since I usually see most of my siblings about once or twice a year (sheesh, does that sound sad? I just realized it kinda does. But that's how it goes when you get older and live far apart I guess! In fact, I recently went over 2 years between seeing Brady/Jocelyn and Brian/Becky's families!)

I'm posting just a few of the "month" pages as examples.

The whole project, start to finish - including verifying everyone's birthdays (cuz I've made errors in the past and it still haunts me) - probably took about 7 hours and cost $100 for printing 10 of them, thanks to my coupon. It's a labor of love, and I enjoy doing it!

I also did a McKell family calendar for my inlaws this year!
I've been thinking about doing this for years, and finally did it.
I hope they like it!
And if they do... beware... they'll get a new one every year for a long time... :)

1 comment:

Becky and Brian said...: We love getting ours! Excited to see it!; December 10, 2013 at 12:21 PM

Quotes I want to remember

"The Lord knows our bearing capacity, both as to coping and to comprehending, and He will not give us more to bear than we can manage at the moment, though to us it may seem otherwise. Just as no temptations will come to us from which we cannot escape or which we cannot bear, we will not be given more trials than we can sustain."
- Neal A. Maxwell

"It is a fundamental truth that the responsibilities of motherhood cannot be successfully delegated. No, not to day-care centers, not to schools, not to nurseries, not to babysitters. We become enamored with men's theories such as the idea of preschool training outside the home for young children. Not only does this put added pressure on the budget, but it places young children in an environment away from mother's influence."
-Ezra Taft Benson

“Perhaps there has never been a time when we had greater need to pray and to teach our family members to pray. Prayer is a defense against temptation. It is through earnest and heartfelt prayer that we can receive the needed blessings and the support required to make our way in this sometimes difficult and challenging journey we call mortality.”
-Thomas S. Monson

“Live the gospel as conspicuously as you can. Keep the covenants your children know you have made. And bear your testimony! Don’t just assume your children will somehow get the drift of your beliefs on their own.
-Jeffrey R. Holland

"We hold in our arms the rising generation. They come to this earth with important responsibilities and great spiritual capacities. We cannot be casual in how we prepare them. Our challenge as parents and teachers is not to create a spiritual core in their souls but rather to fan the flame of their spiritual core already aglow with the fire of their premortal faith."
-Neil L. Andersen

"Certainly there are times when getting the family together to read the scriptures does not stack up as a spiritual experience worthy of a journal entry. But we must not be deterred. There are special times when the spirit of a son or daughter is just right and the power of these great scriptures goes down into their heart like fire. As we honor our Heavenly Father in our homes, He will honor our efforts."
-Neil L. Andersen

President Hinckley admonished both men and women to be nurturers. He said, ‘How much more beautiful would be the society in which we live if every father . . . and . . . mother regarded [their] children . . . as gifts from the God of heaven . . . and brought them up with true affection in the wisdom and admonition of the Lord.’ ”
-Susan W. Tanner

"Children are like trees. When they are young, their lives can be shaped and directed, usually with ever so little effort. Said the writer of Proverbs, 'Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it' (22:6). That training finds its roots in the home. There will be little of help from other sources. Do not depend on government to help in this darkening situation. Barbara Bush, wife of former U.S. president George Bush, spoke wisely: 'Your success as a family, our success as society, depends not on what happens at the White House, but on what happens inside your house.' "
-Gordon B. Hinckley

“I give counsel to husbands and wives. Pray for the love which allows you to see the good in your companion. Pray for the love that makes weaknesses and mistakes seem small. Pray for the love to make your companion’s joy your own. Pray for the love to want to lessen the load and soften the sorrows of your companion.”
-Henry B. Eyring

“Reverent behavior is not a natural tendency for most children. It is a quality that is taught by parents and leaders through example and training. But remember, if reverence is rooted in love, so is the teaching of it. Harshness in our training begets resentment, not reverence.”
-Margaret S. Lifferth

"There is no one perfect way to be a good mother. Each situation is unique. Each mother has different challenges, different skills and abilities, and certainly different children. What matters is that a mother loves her children deeply and, in keeping with the devotion she has for God and her husband, prioritizes them above all else."
- M. Russell Ballard

“As parents, we should remember that our lives may be the book from the family library which the children most treasure. Are our examples worthy of emulation? Do we live in such a way that a son or a daughter may say, ‘I want to follow my dad,’ or ‘I want to be like my mother’?”
-Thomas S. Monson

“Security for our families comes from learning self-control, avoiding the excesses of this world, and being temperate in all things.”
-Kent D. Watson

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Family Calendar time!

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