My mind started working, you could actually hear the gears start turning and squeaking.
I asked him if he'd like to make a scrap book for each of his daughters, so they could begin their adult lives with keepsakes of their own. Just a good collection of pictures of them from birth till now. He thought it was a great idea. Until I asked him to help me compile the photos. They needed to be picked out and scanned, then reproduced.
So that never happened. He got them each something from Staples.
Meanwhile, I needed to come up with something for Steve. I've made him lots of things over the years: the hammer head cane, the customized race car cooler to match his race car, the custom scooter to match his race car. But those were Birthday presents. This was going to be his Christmas present. Hmmmm....what to do...hmmmm.
I decided to go through my extensive collection of photos, to put together an album for him. It took about two hours to choose all the pictures on my laptop; they are thankfully very nicely categorized and all I had to do was click click click and they were transferred to a USB thingy. I chose several themes: family, travel, toys, and pictures of us together where we'd posed for the camera. Oh yes, almost forgot about the funny photos; ones where he either had on a funny hat or disguise. There were about 10 of those.
It was a neat trip down memory lane. I was re-living moments that were actually quite clear in my mind thanks to my very meticulous way of saving photos on the laptop. Every event, every special day, every photo has been carefully saved according to the date and event. The first photo we ever appeared together in was in April of 2005. He had come to a fundraiser I was putting on, and shocked the elite fru-fru members of Havasu's society by hugging on his younger girlfriend.
There were photos from family outings, like Mexico, Las Vegas, San Diego, and Glamis Dunes. There were family reunion and family Christmas party photos. There were car shows, trips in the semi truck for this or that, and Birthday parties.
155 photos later, I was ready for Walgreens. They printed them in two hours. TWO HOURS!
I wasn't ready for them, so I picked up the photos the next morning. Only, I didn't know it was Christmas Eve. I thought I had a whole 'nother day. WRONG.
I spent eight hours that day sorting photos, clipping them, arranging them, and gluing them into the album.
And I was pleasantly surprised at how much he loved his present.
How do I top that? I don't know. I don't think I can. I am physically unable to do another eight hour photo album.
