Okay. I'll admit it. I haven't documented my life as much as many others. Though my father was quite an avid photographer when my older siblings were young, he stopped taking pictures when I was born. The result is that I only have a few pictures of myself as a baby.
When I asked him why, he told me that it was because he was paying too much money on film; oh the days before digital cameras...how did we get along? Now, I should disclose that I think this trait runs in the family. I hate spending money on anything, especially expendables such as gas and groceries. Indeed, I'd rather eat macaroni & cheese three times a day than to spend money on groceries.
The point is that I've never really been one to find value in documenting my personal history. I can trace my lineage back to my parents and I could, probably, find a picture of my grandparents, if I had to. My wife's family, on the other hand, has a very different story.
Christmas with my wife's parents is a little like being a celebrity and having paparazzi. You see, in contrast to my folks, my wife's parents have about fifty thousand boxes of pictures documenting every event in their childrens' lives. And, since the advent of digital cameras, there are probably as many more on their computer's hard drive. So, add it all up and it takes about 20 minutes to open a present at Christmas.
That's because the receiver must, first, get his/her picture taken with the wrapped gift. Subsequently, said receiver must stop and smile after each piece of tape is removed. Of course, the ritual is concluded when the present is unwrapped and the receiver gets one more picture with the gift next to his/her face. Then, move on to the next person and repeat the process. It's very fun and does seem two draw out the unwrapping to an all-day event.
So, with these two, drastically, different styles of documenting events, my wife and I make an interesting pair when shopping for Baby Books. I got no less than several dirty looks from the woman when I suggested we go to Goodwill and get a used book with all the writing in it already. After all, don't most kids follow about the same routine? And, let's face it, once the kid is 20 years old or so, does the child walking in April or May make a big difference? Don't get me wrong, we'll get some white out and write in our baby's name and place his or her pictures where appropriate. Alas, I was half joking.
But, if there is something I'm good at, it's cutting corners and getting things done quickly, if not well. After all, if there's one thing I know, scrapbooking and things like that take a lot of time. In the end, I guess I'm just afraid that many years from now we'll have all these baby books and nothing documented or written in them because we didn't have time, motivation, money, or any number of lame excuses.
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