Ok, time to do something with those million of photos sitting in a box.  Let's put the Plustek scanner on a mission in 2024.  First decide if you are going to scan and organize by people, place , or things!  (PS.  these are called nouns). Then spend the time you have with your loved one grabbing a pile, getting them to tell you what they are all about, and scan away!  What fun you will have and this scanner even makes the old photos look better. 

Hint: When my mom sorted out pictures, she gave us all our own pictures of ourselves.  So I had few pictures of my sisters and brothers.  With this, I can make multiple copies of ALL the photos and give a set to each child so they will have ALL the memories of growing up! 

When I married, my mother-in-law gave me her favorites recipes and she did one better.  She also had her church group give me their favorite recipes.  Dinners and dishes that they had served over the years at the church.  These recipes are priceless and rarely seen in any books because they were all passed down through the genrations of cooking moms. You can start this tradition now.  Give this book to your mother or grandmother and have them write out their recipes.  Better yet, agree on an afternoon to cook something and then write the recipe down as you go through the cooking process with her.  Happy sharing!

How do these lamps work?  Well, you can each have a color.  When one of your loved ones is thinking of you, they activate the lamp and when it lights up on their end, it also lights up on your end. Then you know they are thinking of you. It's a pretty cool idea. If you are busy and don't have time to text or call, but you want to let them know you are thinking of them, just activate your lamp.  If they're in another time zone and it's hard to synchronize a call, viola!  You're thinking of them.  A great gift your little ones will love playing with.  As one child said, "Let's go light up Grandpa." They'll get the idea. No matter how far apart you are, coverage seems to be worldwide. It's a wonderful reminder that someone special is thinking of you! 

These cards are truly a work of art.  If you never received one, you're missing out.  But more importantly, give one this season to a family member.  They will remember the beauty and appreciation you hold for them.  Even better, let's say they need a pair of slippers and you get them as a gift but feel that slippers are "boring".  Spruce the slipper-gift up with a card like this.  Your family member will keep these forever. And the slippers?  Well, they can't compare.

If you don't see your family members very often, the best thing you can do is to give the gift of pictures. Take this album and put in your favorite pictures of the year.  Get some nice photopaper here and just print out pictures from your camera.  Then get some pretty stickers here and dress up the photo with a  date and description on where you and your family were and what you did.  Give this whole album as a gift to your loved one. I love doing this for my kids.  They think I'm old and sit home all day so I put in pictures of my friends and I boating, walking, shelling, eating out, and biking.  I write down what we are up to and then give them this album as a gift. Now they know better.