easing into it

Have you ever gotten a new toy as a gift – and found yourself just sitting and staring at it, thinking Wow, just Wow!

Well, that’s a bit how I’m feeling now.

Its not like I don’t have a bunch of stuff on my mind, its more like trying to figure out the best way to unload it, without making it sound terrible.  This is actually going to be great for me, because I will have to think before I type now.

Not a bad thing, believe me – and thank goodness for the backspace button!

Christmas will be here soon. The family parties have been scheduled. I have always enjoyed our get togethers and having the opportunity to visit with everyone.

My eldest sister suggested that we put together a video of photos from past Christmas parties. It will give us all something to watch, laugh at, and talk about – reminiscing over good times together.  So, I started to look for photos for the project.

We have lots and lots of old photo albums stored away downstairs, which held the treasure of faded, blurry, and yellow tinted photographs.  You may recall those as the kind that were used before digital photos caused the demise of Kodak and Polaroid, BUT eliminated wasting flashbulbs and snapshots of photos with closed eyes or double exposures. Technology is a wonderful thing, in some causes.

Anyways, looking through the photo albums while hunting for old Aubry Family Christmas photos ended up like taking a walk down memory lane. Unfortunately, I didn’t find very many the photos I was actually looking for, but it was so much fun remembering the past events that were captured on film.  More than once I caught myself, laughing out loud or wondering about the person in the photo from 20, 30, 40 or 50 years ago.

Way back when, the film developing places that you took the rolls of film to, would offer “doubles” – basically it was two photos of every picture taken on the roll for a discounted price. While reviewing the boxes and boxes of photos, it clarified exactly why digital replaced film. Taking a good photo with film must have been a whole lot tougher than most will recall, based on the immense amount of truly out of focus, and just plain bad snapshots we had kept.

Not having instant access to what was captured on the film was a lot like Christmas morning, when you weren’t exactly sure what was wrapped up in the gift box. It may be what you wanted – and then again, it may not.