THANKFUL 2021

It’s time for my favorite annual business tradition – my annual Thankful Slideshow.

This video is the TWELFTH of its kind. And while certainly things have changed over the years, I really think there’s something about the videos that remains a constant — I mean, maybe it’s just me, but I feel like the compilation I make every year just OOZES love, fun and gratitude. My families invite me in to do photos because they recognize these things as the best parts of their lives as a family, and I get to be the one to capture them and make them into something permanent that can be kept and shared with all our future selves.

If you’re a regular around here, you’ll notice one fairly big difference this year. My usual soundtrack song — The Pat McGuire Band’s “You’re So Beautiful” is missing! The reason for that? Well, I’m in SPAIN right now with my family, visiting with my oldest, who’s teaching here for a year. And the old music file is hiding from me on my old computer (or maybe an old operating system?) at home. Or at least I think it is? In its place is a song you know even better if you’ve ever done a session with me – the now iconic (in my little world) “Life is Better With You” by Michael Franti.

The truth is that the original “You’re So Beautiful” song only has a few lyrics that really get to the heart of why I do what I do, but those few lyrics are EVERYTHING –

I want you to picture me in the kitchen of my house on Iden Avenue in the early 2000s. I’ve got a toddler on my hip and there are multiple preschoolers at my feet – we’re all dancing around the kitchen with this song at full blast. This song was part of a playlist I used to get through that late afternoon witching hour. And THAT LINE got me every time — that feeling that as crazy and hard as these days and moments were, I knew they’d be gone in a flash and I desperately wanted to remember every one.

“Wherever time may take you

in your life,

remember this was beautiful.”

That feeling is, to this day, why I love doing what I do.

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU to all of you who make it possible.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your families!

Thanks for looking,

Jaye

PS. You KNOW you want to go back and watch the old videos — last year’s is HERE and you can make your way back from there if you like.