When you were growing up getting the family together was as simple as gathering around the dinner table. Now that you are older, however, finding time for family reunions has become a real challenge, one that grows more difficult with every passing year.

If you are feeling disconnected, or just curious, you can make the miles disappear with just a few family photos. Putting together a loving family photo book is one of the best ways to reconnect, and here are some ideas to get you started.

The Year in Review

A year is a funny thing - it can seem like a moment or feel like a lifetime, all depending on the circumstances. The years of our lives are marked by triumphs and tragedies, and every moment is one to remember.

If you want to remember the good times in your family and reconnect across the miles, putting together a year-in-review photo memory book is a great place to start. With a Mixbook template, you can relive and savor all those magic moments from each one of those 365 days in the year just past. These moments do not have to be profound - sometimes even the smallest memories can be exceptional.

Sibling Memories

The bond between siblings is perhaps the most profound one of all. Siblings grow up in the same households and they share the same set of parents. In the case of identical and fraternal twins, those siblings even shared the same womb.

With many years of memories now behind them, it is time for a family reunion, one that brings those siblings back together and allows them to make some new memories of their own. There are still plenty of years to look forward to, but why not look back with your brother or sister by looking at a custom photo book? Just use this template to create a photo book overflowing with amazing shots of you and your sibling growing up shots from those fun family vacations, and even a baby picture or two?

Family Memories

Every family is different in its own way, but they all have a few things in common. No matter what their makeup or how they came together, families are filled with people who love each other, and that is what makes them so special.

Family life is also full of memories, with years behind them and many more exciting ones to come. From summer picnics and backyard barbecues to all of those amazing road trips and vacations, it is the memories that make families what they are. All those memories are worth sharing, even when the various family members have scattered far and wide, so why not bring everyone together with a commemorative photo book. Just choose a suitable template, upload your favorite photographs and send everyone in the family a keepsake photo book they will cherish for a lifetime, and one they will pass on to their own families.

Family Recipe Books

When you were growing up you looked forward to Thanksgiving and all that delicious food. You lived for your grandma's apple pie and the cornbread stuffing that made your aunt so famous. You looked forward to the day that you would be able to recreate those magical kitchen memories, and now that time has come.

The only problem is you do not have any of those family recipes, and that has held your culinary education back a bit. Why not rectify the situation in the most delicious way possible by putting together a family recipe photo book? Just ask everyone, including the aforementioned aunt and grandma, for their special recipes, and a photo of their amazing kitchen creation. Armed with that information you can use our custom templates to create a photo book that is destined to become a cherished family heirloom, one that will fuel many a future Thanksgiving for generations to come.

Ancestry Photo Books

Whether the history of your family goes back to the Mayflower or just a few decades, every one of your relatives has a compelling story to tell. Getting them to tell it can be quite a challenge, however, so why not make things easier by putting together a commemorative ancestry photo book?

Part genealogy, part deep research, and all fun, an ancestry photo book is a perfect way to tell the story of how you got here and where you are going. Once the photo book is complete you can gift a copy to everyone in the family - what a wonderful gift for the holidays, special anniversaries, birthdays, or just because.

Getting the family back together is not as easy as it used to be. With relatives scattered far and wide and everyone leading their own busy lives, finding the time to get together in the same place can feel like an insurmountable challenge.

Hopefully, you will be getting together with the family soon, but in the meantime, you can bridge the gap in other ways. Creating a photo book filled with colorful food photography and old portraits is a delicious treat for everyone. Tracing the ancestry of your clan can be a wonderful and illuminating project, and documenting it with a photo book will make it even better.

Even far-flung siblings can reconnect and catch up by sharing memories of growing up together. These are just a few examples, and we are sure you will think of many other ways to use photo books to bring your own family closer together.

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