Holidays

Adding to the past posts about Mother’s Day & Father’s Day, and The Fourth of July, Birthdays are personal holidays deserving recognition. Therefore, today’s post is about my birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LIZ!

So what does a birthday have to do with a family museum? Everything! Such as? You may ask. The place to save and display all the gifts, keepsakes, cards and such that you and your family members have received for their birthdays.

Perusing our museum, I was amiss at finding out that there were not many things saved from my past birthdays. I couldn’t even begin to recall the gifts I received from only a few years ago, nevertheless 40 years ago. However, there were all those greeting cards saved, so I took out my card box and picked out a few.

 

 

 Sadly, there were no cards saved from my childhood.   

The oldest card was from my parents given to me 44 years ago. I turned twenty that year, was a new bride and mother. I guess that was enough to garner a card-full of emotional sentiment.

Two cards from my daughter, Tiffeni. The tiger card was dated 1993 telling me that I was one terrific tiger and a note about a trip to Chicago. The card with the cat in the glass dated 2000 had a really great quote. “Age is a matter of mind. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter!” The card with the cat licking her chops was from a dear friend who shares my Chinese zodiac sign. What I find most interesting about these cards is their common denominator . . . CATS! It’s really great to know that my friends and family see me the same way. Hmmmmm.

As for birthday gifts, every birthday from ages 10 to 14, I received a Barbie doll or clothes. I had amassed quite a collection by time I became of that age when I was told to put my dolls away. And away they went for 50 years. Can you believe that!

A piece of jewelry was always a gift. What was saved I gathered and displayed in a shadow box along with other miscellaneous bubbles. The shadow box is available at http://www.michaels.com. The blue rhinestone ballerina was one of my favorite pins. I wore it often. The baby bracelet with charms spelling out my birthday month of July and a baby ring of a duck I can’t recall wearing them nor how they even got saved. The other pieces I will explain later. They all have their own stories to tell.   

So, today is my birthday. I will spending it with hubby Keith, Tiffeni & Charlie. There are many presents on the dining room table waiting for me to open. And you can be assured that I will save them all and put them in our family museum.

 

Note: The birthday cake art piece is compliments of Google. Thank you Google.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for the Memories . . .

Hello again. I have been on a brief hiatus due to the fact that I had to get a new computer.
Having said this, on with the show. And thanks for being patient. I appreciate it.

                                                                   Thinking of You

Oh, the memories! With each and every card I opened, a flood of recollections hit me like a 'ton of bricks.' Some of those bricks were still whole, others sadly reduced to chucks, and others into dust. Most of them brought a smile to my face, others made me laugh, but for those whose once truthful words of congratulations, support, and love that had turned to sand, I shook my head in despair. Then I asked my self, do I hold onto these cards and letters that make me sad or shred and trash them? At the time I wrote this I had no answer. So I put the cards away and thought about what to do later. Later came and here is what I did.

I organized them.

First I separated the cards by subject matter. Then by person to whom the card went to. Then once again into groups; birthday wishes, holidays, etc. Then by chronological order. Time consuming - you bet. Sometimes I did this sorting at the same time watching TV, which made the task less daunting. After that, I went back through the cards and kept some and discarded others. At times my heartstrings played a melancholy tune, but most of the time I enjoyed reading the cards again.

 

Why, you may ask, should you do all this work? Because it gives you the opportunity to revisit that moment in time and surprisingly enough, will make you smile, even giggle a bit. But for those negative memories I mentioned above, do not hesitate to throw away those cards. There is no conceivable reason why you should have to grin and bear something sad that happened a time ago. It’s over, move on. At first it was hard for me to do, but as I felt my heart get lighter I knew I was doing something good for me, and eventually the family. So will you.
 

Next, I found a pretty box, sometime more then one per person; husband/dad, wife/mom, children, son/daughter, sibling(s)-brother/sister, and other family (parents/grandparents/relatives) and friends. Then I put a bow around each box and gave each family member their “Card Box” as a Christmas gift. You can’t imagine the surprised look on their faces when they opened the box and found their old greeting cards, along with other memento, for example, photos, drawings and other keepsakes.
 

As they opened their boxes, I heard, “What’s this? Cards from Papa?” “You mean you saved them?” “Oh my goodness! I remember this card.” “Gee, thanks Sis for thinking about me.” “Honey, I love you more today than yesterday, and I believe you still do,” said my husband has his eyes glistened with happy tears.

Get the picture!

So with this introduction, I will share with you some of my stories and images of the cards I saved. Then perhaps they will inspire you to do the same.

Next Post: This post is an introduction to this weeks posts on Greeting Cards.
                  As you know there are many categories of cards, and I will focus
                  on them, sharing with you thoughts, ideas and pictures.