Santa's Helper

'Tis the season for family and friends to receive the gift that lives on long after Hanukkah, Christmas and Kwanza has passed! That's the gift of warm, family memories that glow brightly in our minds, when we view family photographs.

Being a photographer, I've been delegated by my family to keep our family's old images. With my Dad gone from our presence, I delight in seeing images of him, and photos of my 3 grandparents that I never knew. Mom tells me I was either in utero or too young to remember them. Thank God for photos!

It's always fun to see who looks like who in a photo! The most fun I have is watching the looks on the teenagers faces when they look at photos of when they were kids! Their parents will say cute things about them and they'll blush. Middle age folks remember back to all the fun they had at those younger ages and older folks will often comment about how good they looked back then. My mom does a little cringe when she sees this image of herself on the beach, but all my siblings think it's a great photo of her. (I look a like like her, don't I?!)

At Christmas, my father would bring out the slide projector and I'd sit upon his lap, helping him work the machine to show our extended family of grandma, aunts and uncles and cousins, all his old images from family reunions, past holidays and snapshots. Everyone would howl at the image of my mom and her 3 sisters! They they were, 4 young mothers, sitting on the grayish-green, textured couch, with 3 out of 4 of them wearing cat eye glasses! That straight-on-the-camera bulb flash made them look like they were in a police line-up! It still giggle just thinking about it. What a classic shot!

So as "Santa's Helper" delivers these prized possessions to all the familes that have trusted me with capturing their family's images this year, this 'elf' knows the power of the memories that will come to your family for years to come!