This post is sponsored by Kodak Digitizing Box
One of my earliest and most memorable pre-holiday posts had nothing to do with decorating. It wasn’t a carefully curated set of styled, edited images like the ones you see on Instagram today.
Instead, it was a handful of candid snapshots taken the night we were trying to vacuum what we suspected was a dead rodent in a vent in our messy, undecorated hallway. Old school blogging at its best.
It happened just 48 hours before we were scheduled to host Thanksgiving. A bit of holiday chaos from kids, dogs, and house projects has always been part of our life — some things never change.
That scene was wild, but it was exactly how our hallway looked in that moment.
My son Luke, who had just turned seven, wore underwear on his head — his go-to accessory, really. I don’t even remember the last time he ran down that hallway wearing it (just a close second to a Spiderman mask). A year later we left that Portland house and moved to Washington.
How quickly time flies.
Jump ahead a decade. That little boy with underwear on his head is now eighteen and finishing his senior year of high school in Seattle. In June I’ll photograph him again — this time wearing a tasseled cap as he receives his diploma. Months later we’ll drop him off at college, take a family photo, and his dad and I will drive away as new empty nesters. There will likely be a selfie in the car to mark the occasion.
We take pictures for ourselves and for the generations that follow.
Our family has kept hundreds of photos and videos that may not be “Instagram-perfect,” but they mean everything to us. They tell our story, and preserving those moments matters.
Those messy, endless days with kids wearing underwear on their heads and random toy mishaps felt chaotic at the time, but they were also precious and fleeting. I’m grateful to have unedited, real-life images — the ones that capture a fallen giraffe toy on the stairs or a kid mid-antics — because they remind me exactly how our life was. No filter or staged backdrop would make them more meaningful.
Some memories were placed in frames, albums, and scrapbooks, while others ended up in a dusty box in the garage or a bin in the attic. You or your parents probably have similar boxes of photos, slides, tapes, or cassettes that hold stories you can’t access easily anymore.
The safest, most practical way to organize, protect, and share those memories is to convert them to digital files.
Whether you’re ready to sort through albums and boxes yourself or want to give someone the gift of digitally preserving their memories, the KODAK Digitizing Box simplifies the process.
Each year we digitize more of our photos and videos. The process is straightforward: gather film, slides, photos, cassettes, or tapes and attach tracking stickers. Fill the KODAK Digitizing Box with any combination of the 19 supported media types — mix and match VHS tapes, reel-to-reel audio, Super 8 film, 35mm slides, photo prints, and more.
Then let KODAK handle the rest. The service pairs decades of trusted experience with modern technology to make preserving your past easy and secure. Each Digitizing Box includes clear step-by-step instructions, safety barcodes for every item, a prepaid return label, and access to a personal concierge for questions.
I appreciate that the service uses robust tracking, barcoding, and personalized updates so you can follow each item’s progress. A few weeks after processing, you receive your originals back plus a link to the digital files and options like a thumb drive, cloud storage, or DVDs.
What better gift could you give your family?
Start preserving your past today. For a limited time, KODAK Digitizing Box is offering 30% off a first order with code INSPIRED, which makes it an easy and meaningful gift for yourself or someone else.
Sponsored by KODAK Digitizing Box