Mother’s Day Gift Idea: Family Dictionary Photobook

This Mother’s Day consider giving mom a gift that will make her both laugh and cry! Create a family dictionary in photobook form which defines silly words your family uses or inside jokes only your family will love. Pair it with photos of these words and see mom laugh and be brought to tears as she walks down memory lane!

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A few weeks ago, my mom celebrated a milestone birthday. Now I won’t put her age out there on the internet, but you might have a guess after reading about my dad’s recent milestone birthday party. :)  She didn’t want a big party, as we just did that for my dad, but instead, she booked an all inclusive vacation for her and my dad so she could escape this horrible Jersey winter.

When trying to think of what to do for her birthday and knowing that she always loves a handmade gift, my sister and I began to put together a Shutterfly photobook. for her.

Growing up, our family seemed to have our own language when it came to some items — most of which involved food. In an attempt to make things more understandable for my younger sister and me, I guess my mom started using very literal terms to describe some foods.

Didn’t you know “orange noodles” was the correct term for mac and cheese? Or “CCs” was canned peaches due to their obvious similarity to the third letter of the alphabet? Most of these terms stuck and I didn’t realize how weird some of them really were until I was in college describing them to Derek or when we started using them for my nephew, Blake.

My sister and I began working on a family dictionary which included all my mom’s silly phrases along with other common words that our family just preferred. Dinner was supper. A pocketbook was our purse. Cream rinse was conditioner.

I’m sure some of that is a regional thing but I highly doubt the rest of the world calls ketchup, Italian dressing or gravy “dip it” and knows which item is which, depending on what is being served, right?

We also added some other words that brought on fun family memories. Like “flashlight” which was “the object which produces a beam of light that one was asked to hold when helping daddy.”

I wrote most of the copy, with suggestions on new terms from my sister, and we both collected images from our pasts or had our kids act out new ones. Overall, my mom got a kick out of our family dictionary and was laughing to tears while trying to read some of the definitions out loud!

If your family is like mine with a language all their own, consider making your mom a family dictionary photobook at Shutterfly for the upcoming Mother’s Day holiday!

Or if your mom is the jewelry loving type, I highly suggest checking out Stampressions, my blog sponsor. I gave my sister one of her hand stamped necklaces last year with her son’s names on it and it was a big hit. Choose one of her beautiful designs as is, or customize with your own names/dates/birth stones! (Pst Become her fan on Facebook, as she usually offers a discount code for fans!)

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