Friday, December 12, 2008

Great Christmas Gift

I NEVER know what to get my parents for Christmas.
What do you get for the people who have everything? Honestly.

Every year I get my mom a sweater or shirt that never gets worn, or some pajamas that she says she wants that never get taken out of the box, or jewelry that she wears for promptly one day and then only breaks out every 6th year on months ending in "R".
Cookbooks? Dusty. Homemade Jams and Jellies? Uneaten. Handmade Bottle art (vinegar with the herbs and peppers in it)? undisplayed and unused.

And My dad...wow. He has a whole closet full of expensive ties that have never once been coordinated with his beautiful tailored suits. I have given him book gift certificates, which I KNOW have been re-gifted elsewhere, I tried getting him Golf coffee table Books, History Buff videos, make your own marinade kits etc. I always feel like a "Gift Failure".

I wish my dad could be like Lindseys dad, who giggles at the thought of a "Come to the Dark Side...We have Cookies" T-shirt, and who would willingly wear it in public.
Had I given my dad a T-shirt like that it would have been cut into strips and used to varnish their hardwood floors.

SO I really struggled this year to find the perfect gift for them. Something they would love and enjoy and use. One thing they LOVE are Peter and Finn. They have BOXES of pictures and are always asking for copies of pictures that we have taken and always want to see pictures from events etc. So the wheels started turning.
So THANK YOU to Heather, who told me about Blurb and showed me her Blog Book.
You can actually go onto Blurb and MAKE a book. You can make a Blog Book, (unfortunately Blurb no longer slurps from blogger, so you would have to cut and paste and add the pictures)
You can make your own cookbooks, photobooks, journals, wedding books and more.

So I made my parents a year in the life of the McBride family (mostly the boys).
It goes in Chronological Order up to the present, and I chose various picture formats for the different pages, added some captions and text, added titles for certain Pages, and voila.
A 50 page hardcover photobook that they can have for always. No gluing, no cutesy scrapbook tags and papers. Just upload the pictures, arrange, add text and submit.
It was super easy and fun. AND the perfect gift for them.

You can preview it HERE.

I think this is one gift that will get good use.

4 comments:

Heather said...

Great job! I'm sure they'll love it.

Oh, and I emailed them about not being able to "slurp" blogger stuff . . . they're working on it and hopefully will have something at the first of next year (which they better, because I have 277 entries that need to be put into a book, and I'm NOT doing it manually!)

Anonymous said...

Sraha, what an AWESOME idea!! It looks so good! (And that black dress you wore to the Gala? GAW-geous!)

By the way, my Dad's Darth Vader shirt shrunk and I can't find a new one. All the shirts with that saying have someone else on them, not Vader, so if anyone knows where I can find a Vader one...

Rosebud Collection said...

Sounds like a great gift and you did a good job..

Double D said...

Sarah, that's awesome! And a perfect idea for the parent who "thinks" they have everything!

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