Here are 22 pictures from my 2022.

I used to love writing our family’s Christmas card letter. The letter would sum up the highlights of our year and mix in some humor and reflection on life. But I realized that modern technology would allow me to create an even better look at our year. And since a picture is worth a 1000 words, I could write a million-word letter without any typing. Or Whiteout. #winning

So when my children were little I began creating a video of our year in photos. I have done it every year since. And my man Steve Jobs made it easy. The photos from Steve’s magical phone-cameras drop automatically into my computer that Steve built.

I then take the full year of photos and drop them into a digital album. I narrow those photos down to about 250-300 of the best images that tell the story of our year in chronological order. (Which is my favorite order of all time.)

I export the images as a slideshow to iMovie. Then I add a 3-song soundtrack and some title cards at the beginning and end of the movie. And voila! I have a 10-minute video of our year in review. Which means that when my kids graduate or get married I don’t have to make a video. I already have all the embarrassment collected. #DadHack

The Bigger Win

There are 3 great things that have happened as a result of this annual tradition:

We have a fun and easy way to show our friends and family what our year was like.
We have a highlight video of every year of our children’s lives.
We have an ever-present reminder to make the most of each day.

Knowing that we will summarize our year in a video story inspires us to live a fun and adventurous life. Because if we don’t we won’t have anything to share in our annual video. This yearly reflection is a reminder that life is short, and to make the most of every day.

Our 2022 video will be finished and shared on New Year’s Day. But the process of assembling the photos and reliving the year through the images has been rewarding.

Here are 22 images I pulled from our year to share with you. I hope they inspire you to live an adventurous life, to make the most of your 2023, and to capture your life in photos so that you can relive the best moments over and over again.