Annual Leaf Preservation

What would you grab if your house were to start on fire?  What things would you risk life and limb to preserve?  A few years back I would venture to say that 90% of people would say they're photographs, their mementos, a framed family portrait...and maybe their Mac.

When I think of my house in flames during this digital age I can safely say that I wouldn't need to save anything that wasn't a mammal.  How freeing it would be to just walk away knowing you can reprint your uploaded photos from Walgreens or re-order your family photo albums from Blurb.  I have it all online somewhere and although it may not be EVERYTHING and it would cost money for reprints, I would risk nothing to save the prints I have.

Just when I think I can run out scott free with a kid under each arm and a Beagle running behind me (Jahred I can assume will find his own way to the door) I remembered today my most favorite, graspable family memento, one that there's no way to replace, something I've been tending to for 5 years now and do quite like.  I would try to save my "Family Fall" collection where I've gathered leaves from all the houses we've lived in and traced my kids hands as they grew.  I would risk melted hair and smoke inhalation for this baby.

I bought this botany binder (leaf press) online in 2008.  Each year I press leaves from our yard (which has included 4 yards now), I trace the kids' hands and in later years have had Axel draw a picture.  I had no idea what I would do with the leaves when I started collecting them, but as I watched Axel today pick up each piece, so delicate now, I knew that I saved them for conversation starters and for whatever his heart may want to create  with his "years in leaves" when he's grown.

You can see in the pics below how we've evolved from scribbles to this years "family portrait" where Oscar takes up the entire page and where "Mom, I had to make you really small because I made Oscar's collar too big."  It's all relative and some day when he's too cool to draw the portrait or when Oliver takes over the task, we will all laugh at "tiny mom" and remember when we chose those special leaves to preserve.