Over the past couple of months I've been having Shortcake create yearly photo albums of our family. It's something I've been wanting to do for years . . . but the piles and piles of digital photos on various computers makes the task daunting. I take way too many photos and I'm terrible about deleting and organizing them, and going through to find the yearly highlights seemed overwhelming.

Shortcake had a genius idea: most people already have a highlight reel on social media. This was certainly true for me. And most people just don't have the time to transfer those photos into an album.

Shortcake does all the heavy-lifting. You can designate a social account and they will pull the photos, get rid of irrelevant photos (like that photo of your Chipotle burrito or that meme you posted about drinking wine that doesn't make sense in a family photo album.) They use your own captions (or not, your choice) and lay it out into a well-designed photo album.

The albums are really nice - they have all kinds of layouts and designs you can choose from. They also have different cover styles.

Here is a photo of our 2010 book.  SO MANY FEELS. And simultaneously feeling like I don't miss that stage and OMG I MISS THAT STAGE.

My kids absolutely LOVE these albums. I've been terrible about printing photos over the years so this is such a nice way to have tangible memories to look at. They pull these out all the time.

Shortcake is a great way to get your own family photos in order, but it's an easy and thoughtful gift idea too. If you have a friend or relative who is active on social media, you could surprise them with an album that they didn't have to work on. 

To learn more about the process, or to order a book for yourself, check out shortcakeinc.com.

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Originally posted by Kristen Howerton (Rage Against the Minivan) on December 8, 2016