Keep Holiday Memories Alive with Family Mini-Memoir

Remembering the good and bad moments can help build resilience and the knowledge that we can get through tough times if we try

- Jill Lim

Dear kids,

Here is what we'll do this weekend: We'll work on our mini-memoir, about the holiday we took in 2024.

A mini what, I can almost hear you say. Memoir. But less wordy than a typical book-memoir. And with photos—lots of them. It will be a physical thing, with actual paper and real photos printed out. You can call it a photo album too, but I want it to be more than that. So, let's say it is somewhere between a photo album and a journal.

Do we already have photos? Yes, untidily scattered across four phones. Would they have any meaning if someone were to look at them without explanations and context? Not much.

That is why I've opted not to use a conventional photo album with those fixed plastic slots. Instead, I've bought heavy A3-size paper that I will later put together with metal book rings to create a photo book. We'll stick the photos, yes.

But as you can see, I've left lots of space all around because I want you to add your thoughts.

We may have been in the same places during our holiday, but we experienced them differently. What did you feel about a particular day? Which was your favourite moment?

For example, I frowned when it rained during our time in the countryside, as it meant we couldn't go out and do the sightseeing and exploring that we—okay, I—had planned.

But you—the youngest child—were delighted because we then stayed in our accommodation for the rest of the day. And that was all you wanted to do—lie in bed in that cosy bedroom in our quaint Airbnb, with the rain pattering on the windows.

So, pick up a pen and write down what you remember. Add silly sketches and graffiti-like comments to the pages. If you send me screengrabs of the social media posts you had put up at the time, I'll get them printed and add them to the record.

Above all, let's make this mini-memoir personal.