Birthdays in the Family Museum

Today is my daughter’s birthday.

We are going to celebrate it with all the traditional features: Birthday cake – she made a wonderful gluten-free Hummingbird cake (Southern recipe) and put as many candles as the cake could accommodate, however, we ran out of candles. Beautifully wrapped presents have been sitting on the dining room table, all with little clues as to what is in the package. Our family started putting clues on our Christmas presents and because they are so much fun to write and figure out, it adds another dimension of anticipation. For dinner, her father is going to grill some spare ribs. During cocktail time, she will open her gifts. Then we will have dinner and watch Dancing with the Stars, one of our favorite TV shows. Then we will light the candles, sing Happy Birthday and devour the cake. It will be another fabulous birthday and we hope to be able to celebrate every one of her birthdays.

So how do birthdays relate to a Family Museum? It is a great place to display and protect as many past birthday presents everyone received. Like most things that sadly disappear over the years, presents; birthday, holiday, Mother/Father Day gifts, graduation gifts, etc., are victims of taped-up boxes, given away and tragically trashed. My family is just as guilty for disposing things that we should not have.

But we did save quite a few, so here are some pics of some of those wonderful gifts that survive today and hopefully will be given as presents again.

Sesame Street just came on television, so when I found these adorable toys, Tiffeni played with them for years. The Playmobile dollhouse was a great gift and she played with it, adding floors and furniture. When Little House on the Prairie was all the rage, I found these little rag dolls that proudly grace Tiffeni's side of the museum.

So when you receive a birthday gift and any other gift and you don’t want it or use it anymore, don’t get rid of it. Keep it in your Family Museum as a reminder of happy times.