Labour of Love

After moving continents and finding myself in Canada it was a bit of a lonely existence considering that my family was all in Australia.  It all started when Zach was a baby; actually to be honest we have to go back even further than that to when I first arrived here.  

Strangely my relationship with my family in Australia has always been a little tenuous, and moving across the globe did little to change that dynamic.  However, given that I had instigated such a drastic move its hard to feel sorry for me or my situation, after all if I wanted to visit them I know where they live...right?

Somehow this time of year always make me think of home and the hot, Australian summer just getting underway a little more than normal.  Strangely its more than that though, it’s a deep feeling of longing to be amongst my family, although now it would only be with my brothers, sister, nieces and nephews because without mum or dad I feel a little rudderless around this time of year if you know what I mean.  

For me there is no “home” any longer…well, not physically anyway.  

The very first edition was created
before Sami was born

It’s the country and the people rather than the familiarity of a place or gathering that makes this time of year just a little bit different.  That being said this year marks my 25th year of being away for Christmas, and even that’s not completely accurate as I also spent a couple of years away when I was traveling the world so more than half my life has been spent somewhere other than with my family at Christmas...wow, that’s crazy now I come to think of it. 

So why do I care so much?  

Early on when I first arrived in Canada I’d go and buy gifts for Christmas and ship them home to my family in Australia, but the cost of shipping became impossible to justify especially when there was so little in return.  I’m not talking about gifts, as that’s never  really been important to me personally, but more about the effort and reciprocation of love.  

When I met Jodie (my ex), her being Jewish we began celebrating Hanukkah and of course when Zach and Sami came along that’s what became the norm in the Wallis household. The concept of celebrating Christmas for my family in Australia definitely took on a different meaning after they were born.  

The calendars are like a time capsule
of the kids lives so far...amazing
to capture these moments

I wanted to celebrate Christmas in some small way with my family but with something personal and so I struck on the idea of creating an annual family calendar that highlighted all of the family birthdays – simple enough you’d think.  This year we’ll be celebrating 51 birthdays in our annual calendar and that’s not to mention all of the public holidays in both Australia and Canada that I added.  Clearly I wanted to ensure it was both useful but also visible all year round so what better way to do that than make it irreplaceable. 

Of course there are a couple of important rules that I follow when creating the annual calendar – first the photos for each month must be of Zach and Sami as I want my family in Australia to get to know them and see them grow up over the course of the year and indeed the years.   Secondly, the only adults I use in the photos with the kids are of Jodie, her parents or me.  

Some people may say that it’s sort of weird to still want to use photos with Jodie’s parents in them even though we’re not together anymore.  I believe it’s really important to continue including photos with her parents irrespective of where we are in our relationship as they will always be Zach and Sami’s loving grandparents.

Each year I also try to balance their photos, especially as they’ve gotten older it could easily become a sports calendar…so I try to focus on an equal amount of sports mixed with more casual and family adventure photos.

Yeah and some are just plain funny...

Earlier this week I was thinking that I should start sorting through the myriad of photos to begin the process of paring them down into a more manageable number.  Initially I try to find the best 50 photos of the kids over the course of the prior year, both individually but also together.  Indeed its a rather painstaking process, but so rewarding as I get to relive each of the moments when the photo was taken or how we ended up where we did to get the shot.

From there I have to pare it down to the top 12 photos with the remainder being used for the front cover or discarded due to the lack of space.  This year I think I’ll share the reminder via my Dropbox account and send my family the link inside the Christmas card, that way they get to see every photo and are able to download them if the mood takes them.  ☺

My first forays into calendar making were pretty rudimentary, and in the early years I printed them at home and stapled them together before packaging them and shipping them to Australia.  This process has changed dramatically over the years as “TZS productions” (yes, copyrighted no less) have become much more slick and now rely on more modern means of producing the calendar.  Once I create the file I now take it to Kinkos and have them print and bind it with a hard plastic cover, all very professional looking.

Each year I print a couple more calendars for distribution for my adult nieces and nephews who now have families of their own.  Some might also call me crazy but I continue to put both my mum and dad’s birthdays on the calendar as well, although highlight them in a different color to show that they are deceased, more for my siblings than for any of the kids or extended family members. I think they appreciate it…

This past years calendar - a tad more sophisticated
don't you think???

Surprisingly the kids seem pretty blasé about the annual family calendar, although I'm sure that if I stopped producing it they wouldn't be too happy.

In addition, if I’m late getting it pulled together and shipped to Australia so that it arrives mid December I always get the enquiry from a few of my family members as to when they should expect it, nothing like a casual hint!  

Admittedly it’s nice that they care about receiving the calendar and look forward to seeing the photos of the kids each year, and arguably that alone is worth the effort from my perspective, but that being said it truly is a labour of love but one I look forward to every year.

Nothing like creating new traditions!