calendar preview 2011

Many years ago, my aunt Janean started printing a family birthday calendar for the extended Van and Lois Weaver family (my grandparents).  This tradition continued for several years.  Then she announced at a family reunion that she was wanting to pass the tradition on to somebody else, and asked if there were any volunteers.  At that point most of those present turned to look at me, so I found myself volunteered.  This will be the 10th calendar I have produced, and I have loved it every time.  I feel more connected to my myriads of cousins than I ever did while I was growing up, what with keeping track of address changes and weddings and collecting pictures each year.  Granted, most of them only hear from me once each year, but still, once is more often than never.

Each year I have two or three pages to create in addition to the 'family pages' for each aunt/uncle who participates.  Reunions, weddings, new babies, family parties, and unfortunately, funerals, all play a part in these extra pages.  This year I wanted to do something to highlight some of our ancestors, and so I was planning to delve into my mom's files and find some fun pictures and stories.  While I was thinking about it, she contacted me and asked me to indicate on the page with all our names and addresses that her website is not a blog - it is a site that she has created to present all of the histories and pictures and family history that she has collected and compiled.  This fit in with my plans exactly, so this year the extra pages are designed to draw your attention to that family history website.

Now, without further ado, here are the pictures for this year's calendar:

JANUARY

Family History page

I had fun with this one.  I read through many of the histories on mom's website and pulled out excerpts that I think are interesting or amusing.  Hopefully you will think so too.  I also tried to indicate how the people are related to each other and to us, their descendants.

FEBRUARY

John and Michelle Weaver family

Michelle and John celebrated their 25th anniversary this year - in Hawaii!  And Michelle is almost my last holdout for providing an actual physical page instead of digital pictures - still works though.

MARCH

David and Jeanette Weaver family.

Jeanette also sent actual printed pictures, and then Rob supplemented with digital copies from the same photo shoot.  Thanks both of you!

APRIL

Rick and Laura Weaver family

I unintentionally caused Devin lots of stress on this one.  Bryce has been creating their page for the past couple of years, but, obviously, is unavailable to do so for a while.  After struggling to remember what she had learned in her high school multimedia class she finally decided to send me the pictures and let me do the computer work.  Thanks Devin for being willing at least.  :-)

MAY

Family History page

This page is designed the way I had originally envisioned doing all three of the extra pages, but the design for the January page developed itself while I was browsing histories.  For this page, I started a story and left it as a cliffhanger.  You'll have to visit the website to learn what happened.  (If you can't find the rest of the story, let me know, and I'll provide a more specific link to this particular history.)

JUNE

Paul and Nancy Weaver family

This picture was taken at a huge community event held as a fundraiser for cousin Brent.  Please follow this link: Brent Event to learn more.

JULY

Babies born in 2010

This page speaks for itself.

AUGUST

Josh and Janette Weaver family

These 'whole page', 'whole family' pictures are the easiest to put in the calendar, but the hardest to comment about. :-)

SEPTEMBER

Family History page

I love this picture of Great Grandpa Brown, just because my oldest nephew looks so much like him.  As for the story I chose to include, little children aren't afraid to ask why someone looks different, but as they grow up they start to feel self conscious about asking rude or uncomfortable questions.  For those of you who knew Grandpa Brown and never asked, this story tells about the accident that made his right eye look strange.

OCTOBER

Edith and Gary Ogilvie family

I think I got everybody in there at least once, except Heather.  She didn't send a picture of herself, but didn't she do a creepy job on decorating her porch for Halloween?

NOVEMBER

Alma and Pam Weaver family

As usual, Aubrey did a fantastic job with this one.

DECEMBER

Janean and Reid Barney family

Most of these are pictures of some of Janean's great grandchildren, but some are her youngest son's family, since they had fun pictures floating in the ethernet for me to find.