Birthday

Tomorrow, January 21st, is my birthday. I've taken a long weekend off work, and won't be returning to work until Tuesday. Nothing's planned, just staying home, staying warm.


Wednesday, my son made me a cake with icing. It was pretty good, chocolate with chocolate icing. It was early, but it was very good.


Thursday, my first day home, my son and I spent the day with my parents. We had an early dinner out. My mom, my dad and I, all had the same meal... the Chef's Salmon at The Macaroni Grill. This was my birthday dinner with them, and it was delicious! I'm not sure if the waitress overheard us talking about my birthday... she must have, because she brought out a very rich, very chocolate piece of cake with a candle, once we were all done with our meals. The cake was big enough to split in four pieces. Oh! It was rich!


After dinner we were back at my parents' home. My mother's cousin, C, issued the first of a monthly family newsletter starting with my grandmother's parents this month. C wants to highlight my grandmother's life in the next issue as my grandmother is the eldest surviving child.


So, I brought with me to my parents', six boxes of photos and genealogy records of my grandmother's, to sort through. We were looking for photos of my grandmother's childhood, marriage, adulthood, and senior years.


My grandmother was born in Gloucester, Massachusetts, in 1921, the fifth child of Spanish decent. Both her parents were born in Spain and made their migration to America during WWI. Her father was a fisherman and was gone a lot of the time while she was growing up. Gramma used to laugh when she told me that every time her father came home, her mother had another baby. There were 14 children in all, including two separate sets of twins.


When my mother was in grade school, my grandparents moved out West. Gramma was the only of her siblings to move West though she kept in close contact with her siblings. Now, Gramma is the eldest living child, and my mom's cousin C is trying to round us all up.


It was fun going through the old photographs and documents. I found that my grandfather's name was different on his birth certificate than what I had thought, different from what I had been searching genealogy files for so many years. Lots of information in the books my grandmother has put together.


I will have to figure out how to get the photos onto my computer so I can send copies to C for her newsletter. Before I do that, I will bring the photos I've chosen to my Gramma so that she can fill in the stories that go with the photos.


I think this will be a fun project for me, my mom, and my grandmother. There's a whole bunch of family out there to get to know!