Where would we be without our families? 🙂

People who unequivocally support us, get behind us in every thing we do – no matter how big or small. People whom we can count on, take them for granted – but not in a bad way…and who are the first to dish it out to us – like we deserve. Honest, undivided attention (well – not so much in this age of mobiles :)) and unconditional love – who can give these to us? … only our families.

Since this month is all about Celebrations here at The Digital Press, what better way to kick off the month, than with Celebrating our families ? 🙂

Coming from India, we use the term Family quite freely..really. The neighbour who’s been living next door for years…is family. The aunt’s sister’s husband’s brother who has been coming to our house for years…is family. Our extended families are quite close to us in both my own side and my husband’s side of the family. So where our own ends and the extended starts…we have no clue 🙂 Not really the aunt’s sister’s husband’s brother….but you get the drift 🙂

Its quite easy to get pictures of my son, my husband and few others in my memory keeping. However, I cherish the opportunity to capture few from the extended family who have had an impact on me and make me who I am today. Thanks to one of my aunts – I am a voracious reader. Thanks to a first counsin, I didn’t blow up every penny I earned and started saving early on…stories that are small, easily forgotten, but are important to me. The challenge is, we don’t meet with them often enough. So how do we go about documenting their details?

There are many ways we can do so. The simplest way to do so is on special occasions. When the family meets for birthdays, Christmas, christenings etc. There are enough opportunities to click the dreaded family portrait 🙂

CT Stacia captures exactly that through her layout below –

CT Krista captures her day with her Mom and kids beautifully through this Mother Day layout.

 

 

Now, special occasions….thats easy 🙂 Another photo op is when we meet up. It doesn’t matter the occasion, whenever I meet up with the family, it is an opportunity to click pictures – possibly because we meet once in say two years – so not very often. Therefore everyone is enthusiastic about the pictures.

Like in this layout below – Not a peep from my cousins about so many pictures! 🙂

Another example is this layout below of my son with his grandparents, doing an activity that they love to do everytime they meet – feeding the pigeons together.

If capturing new pictures, like in the examples above, is not an option … then just pick up an old picture and scrap away! 🙂

CT Stacia captures little details about her Mom here, through this sweet layout which is truly a timeless treasure.

With these ideas, I hope you get inspired to scrap some stories close to your heart, with people who don’t often get featured in your pages.

I am hosting a challenge in the forum to celebrate our families. Hope you join in the celebrations there 🙂

About the author: Pallavi Sureka is a wife and newly designated stay at home mom to 3 years old Rajveer. She currently lives in Mexico City but her family moves around a lot. She has previously lived in Calcutta, Pune, San Francisco, Chicago and London. She reflects all these places in her pages as she captures her everyday stories.