One of my favorite memories is going and looking for the home that my Mom grew up in. We heard stories about her childhood, and going back to look at the home in San Antonio, TX where she spent her life as a little girl was something that I treasure. I only wish she had been with me on that trip to tell me more stories. But, she wasn’t able to go at the time, and my sister and I went and even took a picture of ourselves in the front yard of that house. We liked thinking of her skipping down the alley behind the house as a little girl.
A childhood home contains so many memories. I moved around a lot as a child, but there was one home that we stayed in for 10 years from the time I was about 10 years old until I graduated from high school, and started college. That will always be my childhood home. Since I don’t live in Texas anymore, when I do go visit, I always like to drive past it. I see the obvious changes to the outside of the house, but it will still always be “my house”, no matter who lives there now.
Scrapbooking a page about a home is a great way to add character to your heritage album. You can do this many ways. If you lived in the same home your whole childhood, then you can take multiple pictures of that home in different seasons. Go back at the beginning of each season and take a picture of the house you grew up in. Then, scrapbook a page about the house and what you remember about living there. Having a picture from each season will give more life and character to the page.
If you were like me, and moved around a lot, you can focus on just one house you grew up in. Or, you could scrapbook a page about each house you lived in, and what your memories were during the time period in that particular house.
Another idea is to scrapbook a picture of your grandparent’s home. I know that I have so many memories from going to visit my grandparents. I took my daughter back there when she was a baby, and took a picture of her and I in one of my favorite spots at their house. I created a page about how special it was to take my child back to a place that was so special to me as a child.
Homes really are a part of our everyday lives, and so essential to who we are. There is joy, laughter, sorrow and tears in every house. Why not scrapbook some life into that house that you loved so much as a child? It will be a great way to make the house itself come alive. Future generations will like looking at the home that you grew up in and trying to imagine you as a child living inside.
Meredith Ethington is the author of this blog. To learn more about Meredith, and her history with Scrapbooking and Genealogy, go here.
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