If ya gotta turn 50, this is the way to do it

Here's my whole family (minus Courtney, home guarding the cat or vice versa, and my dad who died in 2003). Starting from the left: nephew Justin, me, nephew Lucas, Maya, Ben, Eder, Aaron, nephew Matt, mom Jeannine, sister Kissy and her husband Paul. Kissy had her birthday party at this beautiful old mansion that is now the African American Museum of Art and Culture. The photo below was taken of us forming a receiving line, about to start greeting the party guests as they arrived. As we all know how hard it is to get families together these days, spread as we are across the country, you can imagine how precious this picture is to me.




Here's the funny I mentioned earlier. Kissy meets herself in duplicate.




You can see by her expression and body language how much she loved this little joke. (That's her on the far right in the elegant black dancing dress.)




And below is the Life of Kissy collage. It was such a gift of love and so much fun to make. Took forever, plus lots of help from Courtney, because I scanned in a bunch of old family photos, plus ones from Kissy's blog, and then dug through all my old photo albums. I highly recommend that everyone scan their old family photos into their computer, before the pictures have faded and disintegrated. Great way to preserve them, and impetus to start using them.




Kissy gave a beautiful speech at her party, paying tribute to all her family members and many of her dear friends. I followed her speech with a toast--"To Kissy...." and read the story below that came from her blog. I said, to me this screamed Kissy/Stephanie/Doojie (people know her by different names). She doesn't just enjoy the Cheesecake of Life, she IS our little cheesecake.




Looking back over it, I have to say that my sis put on a great birthday celebration. She insisted that we all be there--no flimsy excuses allowed--and so brought our family together for a very precious time. Plus she got all her friends together, in a beautiful setting, and gave them lots to eat and drink. She and Paul had made a fabulous CD of music from the span of her life--music that really meant something to her and brought back memories--and it was great for dancing. All her hard work and planning payed off. We all had lots of fun and it was so wonderful to celebrate and honor her. Thank you, Kissy!

That's it for all the travel to Maryland stories. (I should have told the one about my sis almost getting arrested at the airport by Officer Doody Head, as she called him. Or the one about Eder and Lucas walking from their hotel room two miles to a Safeway for diapers and being turned away at the door because it was 10pm and they were closing.) But suffice to say, our travels were not without adventures.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. I hope you enjoyed it anywhere near as much as I enjoyed sharing it,

Valori