Over the last few years my family has trended on the presence over presents vibe for our holiday celebrations. We’ve really cut down on the amount of wrapping paper necessary to make it through December and the trunk of our tree might be feeling a little lonely these days (but we don’t care!) We all got to an age where we realized that we have all that we need and if we don’t, we will go out and buy it. Instead of wrapping gifts, we all commit to a weekend spent together as a family, whole and complete (which doesn’t sound like much but with multiple rotating schedules, it’s a feat!)

On Christmas night we were opening our gifts, the few that we had given out and I got to the last one. It was something from my brother and it came in an envelope. I opened it to find a plastic thumb drive (and I wish you could have seen the puzzled look on my face.) My brother explained that he had converted all of the family video VHS’s into digital files that were held on this little plastic thumb drive. Immediately we grabbed some popcorn and beer and piled into the living room. Minute after minute I watched us grow up, got to see the day my sister was born, or the time I brought her to show and tell (she was a drooly hit!) We got to watch plays we were in, crazy productions we planned out of our living room, sporting events, birthday parties, weekends at the cabin.

It’s impossible to express the sentiment that was brought on by this plastic thumb drive holding our lives stories. Hearing my sweet Great Grandma Bertha’s voice as she played on the beach with me or seeing my proud dad twirl us around in the water, hearing my mom sing Happy Birthday to us as we failed to blow out the candles, or seeing us kids interact together (sometimes lovingly, sometimes not.) We laughed, got tearful, drank more beer, and lived vicariously through the screen for the next few hours (it was better than any Netflix series I’ve watched.) I never thought the best gift I would receive would be plastic, but just that simple little thing is an invaluable piece of our lives! It’s also a challenge to for me to print my photos, give them a home off of my computer screen, and shoot more video of our lives.