Monday, December 30, 2013

Best Christmas Present Ever.


This one will go down in the books as the best Christmas present ever.  Well, maybe not the best ever, but one of them.  Last January I started making a Family History Book for my family.  The whole project took 11 months, and hundreds of hours but in the end I would do it all over again if I had the choice.  It was not so much a history of our ancestors as it was a history of my immediate family.  Here is a list of what I included:

- The Family A Proclamation to the World
- A family history fan chart
- Information that my parents wrote about each of their grandparents (Our great grandparents)
- Information that my siblings and I wrote about our grandparents as well as a set of questions and   
answers that I had each grandparent answer.  Find the questions here.
- My mom's conversion story (to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints)
- The story of my Mom and Dad meeting each other from each of their perspectives
- Pictures of my parents wedding and a famous family story from their honeymoon

- A section about each of us.  I had each person fill out a questionnaire that I included and then pictures of them as a baby, currently, and at momentous times in their lives. 
- Dad's famous stories of him getting into trouble as a kid.  He always told them to us growing up.
- Stories and memories of each other.  I had each person write a story or memory of each person in the family.
- Kid's Say the Darnedest Things - this section is funny things that we said as kids that mom recorded.
- Mom's journal entries about things we did when we were young

- Places we lived (pictures of the houses and pictures of each place along with some things that some people wrote about the places we lived)
- Pets - pictures of them and a few stories
- Family traditions
- Quotes (funny things we say as a family)
- Recipes (A favorite from everyone)
- Funny stories and memories
- Other famous family stories
- Family Reunions (Told about them and put in lots of pictures)
- Family Vacations - A page and a few pictures from each place
- A list of all the places we have been. 

All together it ended up being 184 pages!  I used the website Blurb and was so happy with the result.  It is a hard bound image wrapped book, that I love!

It was so fun to see my family unwrap the books on Christmas and then to see them reading them for hours, smiling and remembering things that we have done as a family.  It was definitely worth all the work and will be a treasure to each of us for years to come!

Now...how am I going to top this next year?  That's the questions. 

3 comments:

  1. I love this idea! If I can get myself in gear I might steal it for my family next year...I better get started. THANKS for sharing this idea!

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  2. Thank you for sharing, i read this last january and did find it an awesome project. I started as well although different as all my granarents are deceased ascare my parents, but I have tons of photo's inherited from my mom, I am curently writing overseas family who can help me put togehter some memories about aunt and uncles I never knew. I will make a book and give that to my children so they are not forgotten.
    I am rambling I hope I made sense 😍

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  3. I am in the process of compiling my family tree. I plan to print my own pages. My dilemma is trying to figure out where to buy a hard (or soft) cover book so I can insert my pages and then try to either bind it myself with a binding machine or find some place that will bind my pages to a book cover. I am thinking about seeing if our local UPS store can do the binding as they may be cheaper than an actual publisher. I am also wondering if regular printer paper is OK or should I use a specific kind of paper. Any input/suggestions would be appreciated.

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