The Holidays are coming. Bah. Humbug. If not for my daughter Miranda’s love of the holidays I would just spend the time celebrating everyday joys and skip the tough parts.

Two weeks is a glorious amount of time to recapture the joy of everyday life, and I just returned from our annual stay at the beach. If you read my previous blog entry you’re familiar with my ways to capture the magic of vacation. So, here’s my new report from this year’s fun.

Welcome sports fans to a world record event—well, maybe just a personal best. In just 45 minutes, I made a “Play Hard” photo book, celebrating my daughter’s softball team. That’s from first photo selected to hitting the “save” button. Add in another seven minutes to post the book to Shutterfly Gallery and you have an “under one hour” record.

When I think about storytelling I’m often motivated by a desire to capture the richness of a milestone or a life event. I can’t say that my summers are major life events, but we do take an annual two-week vacation to the same spot and we do much the same things every year. The repetition is something I look forward to as it allows me to track the changes that time brings to my family. It’s the time passed that I treasure and want to capture.

I have so many photo book projects in progress it’s driving me nuts. I try to make “perfect books” that I will be proud to post to the Shutterfly Gallery, but can’t seem to finish them. I also have books that I would love to share, but have some moments in them that I would consider a bit too personal. How can I say what I want to say, quickly, and feel good about what I show the world?

One of my favorite books to read my daughter Miranda when she was little was “What Dads Can’t Do” Ironically, it shows Dads losing at games, not being able to cross the street without holding hands- all the cheats that Dads afford kids so that their triumph over “DAD” is sweet. Miranda loved this book until she figured out the system- and that Dad was actually winning by losing.