Last weekend, my family attended the 25th Surprise Anniversary Celebration for my uncle and his wife. My mom and I wanted to get them a small gift, but we wanted it to be a little personal. They are very down-to-earth, casual people, and fancy china, silver vases and so forth just don’t fit their lifestyle.

If you are faced with a similar dilemma, whether it is an anniversary, birthday or other family celebration, and you have a digital camera and a portable photo printer, you might want to do what we did for them.

We bought a nice pewter 4×6 frame at the Danforth Pewter store in Quechee, VT. Mum wrapped it in a nice gift bag — this is important. Do not wrap it in wrapping paper!

Then at the event, take a picture of the guest or guests of honor at the very beginning of the celebration. Let them pose but take the picture quick in the hustle and bustle that always occurs at the start of a party. That way, no one will be paying attention when you slip away to the corner where you’ve stashed your portable printer and print out the picture.

It blows the recipient away when they open the package. It was particularly fun at this event because a few other folks also settled on picture frames as a decent approximation of silver –25 is the silver anniversary. But no one else had a picture from the party in the frame.

Here is the picture I took at the start of the party.

And here is a picture of them opening their present.

Sometimes it’s fun being a geek. And it made my mom very happy to give them something truly unique.

Gear we used in this project: HP Photosmart R837 camera and HP Photosmart A716 printer