Photo Organization Challenge: December

I'm continuing my simple challenge of organizing photos for just two hours a month.


The Memory:

Christmas trees of the past.  Every year we get a real tree, and every year we save a piece of the stump. I think at one point I had this great idea of making all the pieces into ornaments.  Maybe I should seek some Pinterest inspiration. : )  But for now, we just have pieces of stump hiding in random places throughout our house, and I came across a few today in my organizing.  The big piece in the back is actually from this year's tree.  There's kind of a sad, funny story behind it.


Usually we go as a family to cut down our tree.  The day after Thanksgiving is the best day to go, otherwise the best trees will be taken.  But this year we were in Denver and Portland over Thanksgiving week, so we didn't get to pick out our tree.  The next weekend Anna had a swim meet, so we still weren't able to go as a family.  But we needed a tree.  So we ditched our annual outing and Marc planned to go with Ryne and Grace and just get whatever tree he could find.  He went to the same tree farm we usually go to, but it was pouring rain.  So instead of tromping through the mud and getting wet and cold, Marc opted for a pre-cut tree.  Turns out it was a little bigger than what we usually get.  Okay, make that a lot bigger.  He had to cut almost a foot off the bottom, and we had to trim quite a bit off the top to get it to fit in our living room. So that's why this year's piece of stump is a little bigger than the others.  I'm thinking it would make a great candle holder. : )


I guess I'm cheating a little by telling that story.  It's a new story, not something I uncovered during my organizing.  Maybe I should have just told you that our first Christmas tree was named Potifir. {Get it?  Fir?  Potiphar?} Nevermind.


The Progress: Goal met! {sort of}  


I spent about four hours this morning sorting through boxes of stuff instead of photos. {That's why I have to show you pictures of Christmas tree stumps.} I started with four large boxes and ended with . . . four large boxes.  Want to cry with me?  It's not quite as bad as it sounds.  One of the boxes is very organized and I did get rid of a lot of stuff.  A new box is headed to Anna's school, full of greeting cards for the art classes to use.  And some unforeseen benefits arose from my organizing session:


1.  The kids are richer.  I found a card that said Happy Birthday Great-Granddaughter and inside was a ten dollar bill.  I felt horrible, because I didn't know if it was for Anna or Grace, so I figured I'd just give them each five.  But then a few minutes later, I found a duplicate of the card, also with a ten dollar bill!  And later I found two cards with money for Ryne, totaling seven dollars.  And Marc was reunited with a gift certificate (yes, it came from before the days of plastic gift cards) that a Bible study student gave him.  {hanging my head in shame}


2.  My husband doesn't need to get me an anniversary card for our 19th today, because I just found about ten anniversary cards he's given me over the years. {Happy Anniversary, Honey!}


3.  I found my creamy turkey soup recipe. 


4.  I found all my planners/calendars from at least the last fifteen years.  Now I will be able to look up the dates for special trips and events. 


5.  I found the baby's-first-year calendar for Grace.  Since she doesn't have a completed baby book, this is the only record I have of her first milestones.  I was finally able to tell her what her first word was: duck!


So I continue to plug along, hoping for better progress in 2012.  This mess is taking up a good portion of our school room right now, so progress needs to be made sooner rather than later!


Happy Organizing!