My husband and I live in Canada with our three kids. My parents still live in the UK, my sister in France. And my parents in law are from Germany. We manage to see each other once a year at the most. In between we speak on the phone, email or chat via WhatsApp chat. This way, we keep the family ties close despite the distance. Everyone knows what the others are up to. We usually give a photo book to our parents. Especially the older members of our family like to have something that brings us closer into their daily life.
We recently discovered the zapptales WhatsApp chat book and thought this was a much better alternative. It’s more about the things we share – everyone is included. A photo book is usually told from only one perspective. When you print a chat including all messages and pictures on paper and read back through actual conversations, everything becomes so real!