I’m keeping the new tradition I started
Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday, not because of the food (though I’ll never turn down a good slice of pie), but because it’s the one long weekend when all our kids and my mother are under the same roof. In the busyness of life, that uninterrupted time together feels like such a gift. This year, I decided to start a new tradition, one that celebrates the stories we’ve lived over the past year and connects us in a deeper, more intentional way.
A few weeks before the holiday, I asked each family member to send me one to four favorite photos from every month of 2025. Not the perfect “Instagram photos,” but the real ones, the moments that mattered. A hike they loved, a meal they cooked, a place they traveled, a silly pet moment, a personal victory, or something quietly meaningful they didn’t want to forget. I gathered all those photos into a shared album, and as they started coming in, I found myself smiling at the tiny glimpses of everyone’s year.
Once all the photos were collected, I created a slideshow. If you’re an Apple Photos user, it’s incredibly easy, you can select the album, choose a theme, and pick music right inside the program. Google Photos offers similar tools if that’s your preferred platform. With just a few clicks, the memories of an entire year turned into something beautiful and cohesive. I added gentle music, hit “play,” and suddenly everything from January to November unfolded like a family documentary.
On Thanksgiving Day, after the dishes were washed and the kitchen quieted down, we gathered in the living room and watched the slideshow together. There were bursts of laughter at the goofy pictures, proud smiles at personal accomplishments, a few emotional moments that left us wiping tears, and plenty of “Where was this taken?” conversations. It allowed each of us to understand the fullness of one another’s year, the highs, the struggles, the adventures, and the simple joys. It became a celebration of who we are as a family, and I already know we’ll repeat this tradition next year.
As we enter the gift-giving season, I’m reminded that the most meaningful presents aren’t things, they’re the stories we preserve and the memories we share.
Rhoda Gordon, a local Certified Photo Manager, is the owner of Sunflower Photo Solutions and the creator of DIG YOUR PHOTOS!™, a DIY photo organizing kit. For a decade, she has been helping families and businesses sort, organize, digitize, and back up their print and digital photo collections. Discover more tips, tricks, and how-tos on her YouTube channel: youtube.com/@digyourphotos, and visit sunflowerphotosolutions.com or digyourphotos.com for expert guidance and support with your media collection and organizing projects. If your club or neighborhood group would like a session, I would love to help.
