My first real Mother's Day was 16 years ago. Today we celebrated that anniversary by also celebrating Sarah's 16th birthday (again) with (almost) the same nucleus of family that welcomed her into the world.
None of us will ever forget Aunt Penny's first remarks upon seeing Sarah for the first time: "Wow! What a cone head!" She also proclaimed that even though she vowed to love Sarah, "All babies are ugly." Five years later I had the privelage of being in the delivery room when Penny delivered Samantha . . . . Penny's first words when she saw Sam were: "She's so cute."
Perhaps one of the reasons tradition has such a stronghold in our family is because some of us never forget.
So, in keeping with tradition, we celebrated with a dinner of Poppyseed Chicken and the birthday number made out of bread . . . . followed by presents and cake.
Grampa David helped uphold a tradition older than me by presenting Sarah with a "closet gift." The #16 brass key chain was an "artifact" from the famly rendering business that was founded in 1917. Grampa David was the third generation to own and operate the ultimate recycling business and so another three generations later, this bovine ID tag was recycled into a key chain for Sarah. (I'm still not sure if the brass ID tag was worn in the cow's ear or around its neck, but we lead Sarah to believe the latter.)
One of the best gifts I received for Mother's Day was that Sarah helped get everything ready for her own party while Steve and I were playing in Chicago.
She even made a 3-layer cake all by herself to rival the fruit-jeweled crostini Rachel made me for my birthday.
I've said it before. I'll say it again. Life is Good!
AMEN!!!!! LIFE IS GOOD!!!!!
I'll second that emotion!