Personal Place Mats

We wanted a fun, inexpensive way to celebrate and reflect on our past year. And we also wanted something we could keep out and enjoy all of the time," says Tami Thomson of Toledo. So her family settled on scrapbook place mats last year. During the first week of January, Michael, now age 14, Hailey, six, Charley, three, and Lauren, 20 months, each decorated one side of an 8 1/2- by 14-inch piece of construction paper with handprints, photographs, ticket stubs, drawings, and the like. (Tami and her husband, Tracy, plan to join in this year.) Tami then laminated them at a copy shop for about $2 a page. "It's interesting to see what the kids remember and want to include on their mats," she says. "We use them all of the time. And what great mementos! We'll keep them forever."