I love taking photos for my photo holiday cards, but the problem is getting the photos developed! I’m not quite up to speed with digital cameras, so I haven’t yet taken advantage of the instant gratification that digital photos can give you. Recently I took four disposable cameras that had been sitting on my dresser for several years to be developed, not really knowing what was on them. Were they vacation photos? Holiday photos? Photos of my cats? Who knows! I did not take the disposable cameras all at once though, as that would not be like me. I took one at a time and each time I picked up the one set of pictures, I would drop off another one to be developed. It turns out that any normal person probably would have been anxious to get at least one set of photos back quickly; they were my son’s wedding photos from September of 2006!

Actually, after getting the photos developed, I was very happy I did. Two rolls were from Christmas 2006 and 2007 at my son’s new home, with both sides of the new families in attendance. My daughter-in-law was very nervous having everyone over for the first time in their new marriage. The get-together was such a great success that we decided to do it again in 2007. I had promised to send her duplicate photos of both holidays, which I eventually did. I was better off not sending them to her at all though because she had forgotten my promise. When I finally sent her the belated Christmas photos, I got in trouble with her for not sending them sooner (not as much trouble as I got into for forgetting their first anniversary, but that is another story)!

The fourth roll contained photos of a fostered cat that I had to give up to an animal hospice due to serious illnesses. She died soon after I left her there. I was so happy when I realized I had those pictures of my lost friend Callie. I will never forget her and the photos are a special reminder of her.

Have I learned my lesson about developing photos belatedly? Yes, I treasure them even more once I get them developed, no matter how late, because they are fond memories of the past that were not quite vividly remembered until the photos were viewed. And when I go to my friend’s son’s pre-school graduation this May, I probably won’t get those photos developed until he goes to high school so she and I can have a good cry over how cute he was back then!