A Gift of Special Importance

After several years of exchanging gifts with everyone in the family, we went to a draw names gift exchange. With spouses, it was getting kind of out of hand for us. Usually, around Thanksgiving, someone would volunteer to toss everyone's name in the hat and you draw. The only rule was you weren't being assigned an immediate family member's name. Hence, I couldn't get Carole's name. Sometimes, that simply required assigning people names if the draws didn't go quite right. This year, I got my sister. But I decided to, finally, give everyone a present I have had in pieces for 5 years.

When my mother turned 70, we all got together to celebrate. We took her out for dinner and breakfast. After breakfast, she wanted a photo of all her kids and grandkids. We did a shortest to tallest photo but that didn't come out very well. Then someone hit on the idea of climbing the apple tree in the yard. This was the result.

 

I had 5x7's made for everyone and had them matted. That step sat in a bag in my home office for the next 4 years. In November, I finally finished my part of the project. I took vellum, printed everyone's birth date and glued the name and date onto the mat in line with their photo. This was then professionally framed in complimentary colored metal frames. They came out beautifully. 

Upon opening their packages, my siblings and nieces could not remember when the photo was taken. They remember it being taken but not when. 

In the 5 years since this was taken, we have acquired 3 great-grandchildren (a new one just this past Sunday), one on the way and 5 significant others. We're probably about due for another photo but getting everyone together is the problem. It's something to shoot for. I just shouldn't wait 5 years to get the result framed. 

Beverage:  Scottish Blend tea

Deb