Enter the photo calendar. For Christmas this past year (2012) I made one for everyone. Each one was customized for the specific recipient. Since my parents are divorced I didn't figure my mom would want photos of the grandbabies with ex-grandpa, and my dad would not appreciate photos of his grandchildren with my mom's new partner.
On the large photo above the calendar is a photo that somewhat relates to that month. Since my son's birthday is in August, all the photos were of him. The large display photo was actually a progression of him growing up playing baseball (3 photos of him at 3 diff ages in uniform). My older daughter is an October baby, so she got October and the baby is in November.
Throughout the 365 days there are dozens of photos. On your birthday is a photo of you - my sister, brother, mom, grandma and late relatives all got a place of honor on their birthdays. Same goes for hubbys family as well. My mother-in-law appreciated a photo of her late (but favorite) Pomeranian on a few days.You could put a photo on all 30/31 days, but that was a little crowded, so we limited it to about every other day.
The hardest part about the entire process was making sure that Mom's calendar had no photos of Dad and then culling the ones I knew she already had. I already had 2700 photos uploaded to the website - some she had never seen from our vacations (bad daughter!)
Overall it took us about a month to make about a dozen calendars, it was so easy that my 8 year old could help. The time was well worth it, everyone loved the gift (only about $20 each!) and it's something that is practical as well as personalized.
I have already told many friends about this and plan to do it again and again. I just forgot to make one for myself this year :(
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