Christmas 1991

In December 1991 I pulled out the Christmas decorations. That may not seem like such a strange thing to do in December, but it was unusual for that year. I June of 1991 my mother passed away and I wasn't sure how Christmas would go that year. My mother always made a big production of Christmas - baking cookies (that she thought were hidden from us), making my Dad put up the tree and lights, cooking and shopping. But this year, none of that would happen unless someone else did it. I left the cookie baking to my sister, who is better at it than me, and pulled out the tree and decorations.

In one of the boxes I found a small white box with a snowflake design on it. When I opened it I found an envelope with "1990" written on it in my mother's handwriting. (My mother was left-handed, but one would never know from her handwriting.)I took out the envelope and found another marked "1989", then another marked "1988", then another... Inside those envelopes where Christmas cards; the card the Carpenter family sent out each year from 1954 to 1990.

I eventually ended up with that box of cards (along with other special items from the family home) when my Dad sold the house. I always thought it would be nice to preserve these electronically, but I wasn't sure how and didn't have the time.

This year I do have the time so I thought I'd create a video of the cards. This would not be easy. I don't have the most up-to-date software on my computer. I don't have Adobe Flash which would be the first choice for creating an electronic video. I have a seven year old version of Adobe Photoshop (Photoshop CS, no numbers after it), an even older version of Adobe Illustrator (version 7), and a four year old version of Camtasia Studio (version 3).

Its taking a lot of time, good thing I started early, but here is a beginning iteration. This is a low-resolution version as Blogger will not allow the high-resolution version. (Too big.)