All I know is that I had been missing family celebrations for so long… sure there was the occasional one when we were up country here, or family was down on the coast with us when we lived there. It felt so lonely to call on the special days and say hello, send well wishes for birthdays, and other celebrations, and not be there in person. We were one branch of the family tree, but it seemed so far from the trunk. So it was a joy to be finally hosting one of our own, in our own house, for our family celebrating 5 different birthdays, a anniversary, and Easter all at the same time.
The cake came from the same bakery that made our wedding cake, we were married up here, now almost 12 years ago. There were all the birthdays, my Dad’s, nephew’s, niece’s, sister’s, and mine.
And to celebrate, I wanted to do something fun, and nostalgic, that tied all the different birthday people in together. So I gathered together old family photos, I even had one of my Dad as a baby. I printed them out, and pasted them onto paper for a more natural look, and using tiny little clothes pegs pinned them onto branches, or hung them from twine.
Everyone had fun circulating the house looking at the different photos. It was cute to see how we all looked… way back then. My Mom dubbed it the “Family Tree” and the branches are still in my kitchen, I want to leave them up for a little while to enjoy the glimpse into the past.
Kind of feels like we have come full circle, a house, family only 10 minutes in each direction… the branches are strong, the leaves are full, and the tree continues to grow.