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Saving Memories -- and Money
Rated by 1 member
"Can I have a plastic snow globe?" Grace asks, holding up yet another tacky souvenir in one of the shops along Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco.
"No honey," I reply and remind her that we can't take it on the plane (no liquids or gels through security). I go on to veto more purchases -- an "Alcatraz Triathlon" T-shirt, shot glasses, and an "earthquake in a can," until I finally give in and let her deplete her savings to buy a stuffed seal wearing an "I heart SF" T-shirt.
With family all over the country, we travel a lot and Grace, 6, loves the idea of souvenir shopping. She falls prey to every tourist trap she steps in and by the time she slides into home she's traded all her hard-earned money for a few overpriced plush animals and plastic, logo-emblazoned tchotchkes.
A few hours after the seal purchase, buyer's remorse sets in when she sees something she really wants -- a magic set in a toy store.
"Honey, you already spent your money. But the good news is you can work for some more, save it up, and get the magic set next time," I console.
"But I needed a souvenir," she says referring to the stuffed seal.
That's when it dawns on me that, Grace, a collector by nature, feels compelled to commemorate. But it's time that I teach her that memories are not about stuff -- they're about experiences.
"Okay, I have an idea," I say as she wistfully follows me out of the toy shop. I give her a little plastic shopping bag and tell her that I want her to collect things to symbolize all the special things we do in the city that day -- but without spending any money. I give her a tip to go back into the magic shop and ask for a business card which she excitedly procures and adds to the bag.
Over the course of the afternoon she adds a seagull feather, ticket stubs from the ferry, a fortune from a fortune cookie, and assorted ephemera. That night I reveal the plan to create "San Francisco In a Box" using all her found objects and a shadowbox frame.
When we get home, I use a San Francisco map as the backdrop on which to glue and tape our treasures. Grace rummages through her stuffed animals to find the "I heart SF" seal.
"Now, he won't miss his home so much," she laughs as she places him next to our homemade homage to the City by the Bay.
How do you and your family save your travel memories? Click the comments link below to share ideas.
Member Comments On…
Saving Memories -- and Money
thank you for sharing this ideal.our family collect things from our trips or vacation and put them in a photo album we have collected everything from postcards,pictures,lottery tickets,keys ring,etc that will on our page and the kids write a sentence or paragraph bout the fun they had on our vacation
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We too collect a Christmas ornament from vacation, and I too am a scrapbooker. I've often wondered what to do with the 'larger' things that we collect from our trip . . . menus, shells, brochures, etc. The shadow box is a great idea !! Thank you for sharing.
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We collect Christmas ornaments that are reminiscent of places we visit. Some of our more unusual ones are a miniature crab trap from Annapolis, Maryland and a tiny sombrero from Mexico. Friends also give me ornaments as gifts such as painted wooden dolls from Russia and wooden shoes from Amsterdam. I, too, am a collector by nature and this allows me to satisfy that urge while keeping the clutter down. We've been doing this for many years now and are able to decorate a 6 foot tree all the way around, top to bottom, without a single traditional glass ball ornament. I am currently compiling a journal describing when and where we acquired each ornament for my kids for when they are adults and it's time to thin the herd.
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This is a fantastic article! I am a scrapbooker, so I'm a saver of memories and anything that goes along with them, and I think I have rubbed off on my daughter in that aspect also. She likes to save things regarding memories of places. She isn't quite interested in making a scrapbook just yet, but I think this would be a great idea for her to preserve her memories of our vacations! This would also be a neat idea for a conversation piece on the coffee table in your home.
Corinna
www.myscrapbooklife.com
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At the recommendation of his first grade teacher, my son kept a journal of a family trip that kept him out of school for a few extra days of vacation. We brought along a simple composition book, a glue stick, and colored pencils, and he faithfully jotted a few sentences every day, sometimes gluing a ticket stub or postcard to the page, other times doing his own drawing. It was an instant souvenir, ready to show off to his teacher and friends the day he returned.
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Every place my family goes, each of the kids get to pick out a patch from that place. I then attach the patch to a special blanket for each of them. That way they have a record of every place they've ever visited and it takes up very little space.
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Whenever we go on vacation, the kids are allowed to choose a related book as a souvenir. We are a reading family, and this way, we get to relive our vacation every time we open its pages.
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