Keeping the memories fresh

[tomgreen41]

Seldom talked about but I think this is an important topic.

We went to WDW a few months ago with kids (aged 6 and 9). Chances are, they're going to forget many of the rides, experiences, and memories.

Decided to pull up the pictures and watch them on our TV. It brought back a lot of fond memories for us.

What are some of your strategies for keeping some of the memories fresh, especially with younger kids?

 

[bxccah]

I watch the parades, ride videos etc on youtube with my three year old niece. She loves to sing along and wave at the characters.
When she watches a disney movie or disney junior I remind her of when she met the character, she has quite a few photos around her bedroom, simple souvenirs like her lanyard, hat etc are always out in her room too. I know my sister is always going through the pics with her too at home.

 

[msp2mco]

My DS and DD are older now, but we talk about Disney a lot just because we enjoy the conversation. That has resulted in them remembering a lot of things. We talk about our favorite rides and experiences we had on those rides or other attractions. Sometimes I make a recipe out of a Disney cookbook. We also have several CDs of Disney music that we play in the car or on our i-pods. There is a CD of ride music that we especially find fun to remind us of the parks.

 

[cheshireqt]

I am enjoying reading how others keep memories alive.

For us --
We make DVDs of our trips and watch them whenever the mood strikes. We set our pictures and videos to music, disney music, and do some cool fade ins and outs. We have the action video interspersed, usually at a good transition spot. My DH is very talented electronically speaking so they turn out really well. We have the same creative screen shot that displays between days showing Day 1, Day 2 etc. That then transitions out. We try to stay accurate to the order of events of the day. We also include pictures of the resort and of course around and about the resort. We then make a cover for a dvd case and it is filed with our other dvds.
In the case of our 2009 trip we had 5 cameras between all the adults, all of those pictures were downloaded to our laptop before we left Disney. We had thousands of pictures to sort through for what would make the cut and it took us 5 months to complete it. The DVD turned out really, really well and I love watching it with my Grandmother when we visit her at Spring Break each year (it was her first trip at 92 yrs of age! She is still even now spry and her mind is very sharp), she loves reliving the memories with us. We also watch it when my sister, bro-in-law and nephews come to visit (even though we made them their own copy ). I make my kids watch it then too. They fuss for a minute and then as the memories start displaying they start talking about other memories from the trip that don't make it into pictures! The video clips at Club Cool as we initiated family members to the Italian coke, and the video clips at Whispering Canyon are esp. favorites.

Other than that I keep up to date with whatever changes are happening at Disney, including rumors and news (also with Universal) and I talk about it and show the family videos, concept art and some of the particularly well done blogs. We are waiting for the Mine train at MK to be completed and for the HP expansion and then we are going back for a mega trip or two separate trips, all depends on the timing.

 

[Sydney2977]

I scrapbook, so I make albums of each trip. It's fun to look back at each trip to see what we did, in what order, where we ate, etc. Even while I'm making them the boys will look at pictures and say "oh, remember..." or "that was so funny when..." so it keeps it alive for them. Little souvenir things I can fit go in there, like their driver's license cards from the Speedway or the Discovery Club book from our first visit at AK. I put maps and guidebooks in sleeves at the back so we can still pull them out and see how things may have changed.

 

[HappyGal]

I also scrapbook but nothing fancy, actually it's more like a photo album with napkins, tickets, parade glitter etc. I take so many photos that it turns out to be a huge album! Going forward in addition to my huge album, I'm going to make a photo book Walmart.com) with my favorite pics and keep as a coffee table book.

I would love to do have a family Disney video but I'm intimidated by the editing. I think I will try to shoot some video on our December trip and see waht I can do!

Someone also had a cute idea - save the paper placemats from Disney restaurants, laminate them and use them at home.