52 Stories: A Birthday, Gatherings and Family

I found some photos of a family gathering at our first house. From the ages of the children and my haircut, I am fairly certain this is Eric's birthday in 1990, so his 28th.

The official #52Stories question I found on FamilySearch had to do with what sacrifices your parents made to make holidays magical. Riffing off of that, these photos are special to me because they remind me of all the times my parents and siblings made the effort to gather together for birthdays and holidays.

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52 Stories: My Bridal Shower

One of the primary reasons I embarked on this project of writing 52 Stories from my life is to make some progress on the mess of unorganized photos that haunt several corners of my home. Their neglected state often causes me real stress and feelings of inferiority, and I want to get rid of those feelings by working a little at a time to scan, identify, and preserve, then tell the story here.

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Book Review Catch Up

This is a quick and dirty catch up of some books I've gotten through in recent months. These were all audiobooks.

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52 Stories: What Was Your Childhood Home Like?

The home I remember most was our rowhouse on Blakeney Road, in Catonsville, MD, with the zipcode 21228. It was a brick rowhouse, built in the 40's or 50's. I remember the house number as 260, but a search of Google maps is making me wonder if the street has been renumbered, or if I'm remembering wrong. Now I want to go over there and see. We lived there from about 1972-1980. When we started out, there were three kids in the family, and by the time we moved, there were 7. My dad built us a bedroom in the basement when the space really got scarce.

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The Holidays

Christmas morning at our house,
as interpreted by Prisma. 

The holidays are just about over. Tomorrow I'll be taking down the decorations and cozying up the house for winter. I'm also going to start on sending some cards and letters. I always make a good try at that in the first weeks of the new year.  Later in the week, I have a something special coming--I'm attending a knitting retreat as a regular old student, not as teacher, staff, or photographer. I'm really hoping it will be lovely. Sometimes I like it better when I'm working and not just relaxing, so it will be interesting to see if I can turn my mind to engage in a different way--to receive and experience rather than facilitate so others have a good experience.  Wish me luck.

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