Pages I do every year

Sometimes I scrap the exact same pages every year. There: I said it. Sometimes I even do the same journaling or the same design too. Why change it? If I like it, and the ritual pleases me, why not?

Here's one thing I do every year: my page of my favorite photos:

 

I started doing this layout after an inspiring blog post by Stacy Julian; she suggested we spend 15 minutes not thinking too much, scrolling through the photos of the previous year, selecting our favorites, and putting them on a LO. I used this template designed by Barb Wong. I've done this for the past three years. It's awesome. This is the first page in my Project 12 albums.

Sometimes I think we put too much pressure on ourselves. We think if something is done the same as what we've done before, we're being unoriginal. I quarrel with that. We're creating, and one thing that creators do involves repetition, especially repeated style. Why reinvent the wheel? When we see a particular design of ad, for example, we know the company that produces it. That's good. So if my family sees the same design in every vacation album, that's OK; it signals the familiar, which is comforting. 

It's OK if we repeat ourselves, especially if we love it. If you love it, do it again!

Here's some of the pages I do every year:

1. Birthdays (of course)
2. 5 Vacation Favorites (a mini album I do every year after vacation)
3. Thankful (a Thanksgiving LO)
4. A year-in-review page
5. Getting off the school bus (my first day of school page)
6. Catch (this is a big thing with my husband and the boys)
7. Black Friday (We go to the Mall of America. It's a big thing.)
8. Vacation album (I use the same design every year)
9. A 2-page Christmas/December spread
10. Jedi Eggs (Easter dyeing)
11. Christmas card photo spread
12. Easter family photo

There's others I tend to do, but these I embrace and do every year, without fail, and without shame of copying myself, even if the design or journaling or title is the same.

What pages do you do every year?