2012 Highlights (yep... I said 2012)

At the end of 2011 we decided to make a little family video using photos to highlight our year and then send the video to extended family so they could see our kids growing up and see our adventures and such. It was our intention to send it to all the cousins and grandparents for Christmas. Right around Easter of 2012 (*eyeroll*... I'm such a slacker!) we finally go the videos burned to DVDs and sent off to the grandparents and told them to just share. One side of the extended family popped the DVD in at the next big family gathering and we were told it was a hit. The other side of the extended family never even heard that the video existed, let alone watched it (but the grandparents did, and they enjoyed it hehehe :) ) I didn't think we could possibly botch up the idea so badly a second time. Thought we'd learned from experience and would do much better for 2012.

So early in December 2012 I started working on gathering the right photos to showcase each family member's year and attaching the music that the kids wanted, etc. It was an emotional project since I was culling through photos from Hawaii while preparing for a rough Christmas in a new place away from extended family while also preparing for a forced move to a new house within a few weeks. But I did it!! I finished the videos before Christmas. There was just one little bonus item we wanted to add to the end of the video... And what do you think happened? The whole project got back-burnered in chaos of the holidays and our move at the end of December. And then it was fairly forgotten. And finally around Easter time I remembered that we'd never sent the videos. They never got burned to DVDs. They just sat there on my computer, complete but not watched. I thought I'd try to get them burned and sent for Mother's Day. Nope. Missed that too.

Lame. Lame. Lame.

So last week I finally just uploaded them all to YouTube and sent the links to all our family members and best friends (the ones who gave us the idea to send videos in the first place). And I haven't heard a single word back from anyone after sending the links. HAHAHAHA. Talk about a flop and failure of epic proportions. Not sure I'll bother even trying this whole send-videos-to-family idea for 2013 since I clearly can't get it right. BUT! My kids absolutely love seeing their own year in review set to music of their choosing. It makes them happy. Which makes me happy. For all the scrapbooking I do for work, I'm horribly inconsistent about printing layouts or having books printed for my kids, so the videos are at least a fun way of documenting their years in review for them to enjoy and look back on.

I figured I wouldn't let all the video making work go to waste, and I'd go ahead and share all our little video clips here on the blog for anyone who might be interested (and for quick reference for when the kids want to watch them again). I'll list them in the order I would have burned them on DVD in case anyone feels inclined to watch them as they were intended to be viewed hehehe. I know it's a lot of video watching. I don't really expect anyone to sit down and just watch our whole year, but whatever LOL. If you want the condensed version probably just watch the last three vids that are of the whole family instead of individuals (but there are some gem photos in the individual vids too).

Here we go!