Okay, it's December 22nd, and if you're not done with your Christmas shopping, time's running out. You can either join everyone else fighting the traffic and crowds, or sit comfortably at home. Your choice.

Me, I'm choosing the comfy at home option. Tomorrow morning I'm driving to Indiana to see my mom, and still hadn't figured out what to give her. So, I look over the last year in photos. In August one of her granddaughters got married, and while she has some photos from the wedding, I knew that a nice, framed, single print collage would be a big hit.

I've written about this before (look at the entries from May 31 of this year and Nov. 27 of 2006) so I won't go into the step-by-step details. The basics are: collect a group of digital images, crop them the way you want, create a blank canvas in Photoshop Elements or Photoshop itself, drop them in and re-size them using "Free Transform," then print.

It's quick, simple and a unique gift. For the last step, the frame, I head into the storeroom and find an old picture I no longer need, toss the photo, add the new print and voila - instant gift!