The days are long but the years are short. No month gives meaning to this adage quite like the month of January. The month when the holiday high fades away, the bleak days of winter settle in, and the passing of another year weighs on us. Sure, it’s a month marked by shiny new beginnings — new resolutions and new habits — but on our calendars, it’s marked by nature’s cue to slow down and reflect.

Taking time to look back reminds us of how far we’ve come, of who we were then and who we are now. It reveals how much our children have grown or how much our home has changed. It reminds us that rarely is a year just one thing. It is a mingling of highs and lows, of seemingly average days and once-in-a-lifetime days, of prideful moments and disappointing moments. And only when we slow down to reflect on it all do we begin to see clearly the individual threads — all woven together to create another meaningful chapter in our life story.

This year we thought, what better source of inspiration for documenting your year than the real annual albums of Artifact Uprising customers? We caught up with four of them — and here, we’re sharing their meaningful chapters, along with their tips, tricks, and reasons for putting their moments in print. So whether this is your first stab at chronicling the year with photos or one of many in a long-standing practice, we hope these customers inspire you to slow down, reflect, and make permanence of your year in print.