A Digital Scrapbooking Journal - Part Twelve

Sharing the Love

Sunday, August 19, 2007: Reunion Dinner Menu

I completed the menus for our family reunion dinner just in time. We leave for Ohio Tuesday and I still have a million other things to do!

The theme for the dinner is a traditional Polish feast, so I wanted to include some family photos of past celebrations. I had to come up with a new format so that it wouldn't appear too busy.

I decided on a quarter-fold card style of 8 ¼ inches square (when completely opened). It's tied up with raffia so people won't peek until we are all seated. As they turn it over and then open it, they will see only one or two photos at a time. However when completely open, the design makes a nice scrapbook page.

Flipping it over they will find the menu which was hidden inside the folded card. The menu starts with "Blessing - Oplatek sent from Poland by Joe's cousin". [ Joe is my DH's dad, now deceased. ]

An oplatek is an unconsecrated communion host. In the Polish tradition, it is broken by the host and shared with the guests before the meal.

My mother-in-law will be sooo surprised to see this, since she sent it to us to share at Christmas about 15 years ago. We used a tiny piece and I tucked the rest away with her Christmas card to us. Now I know the reason why. We will ask her to do the honors this time.

This page uses the following Scrap Girls products:

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CBA_AntiqueCharm_Embellis2_gerbdaisey
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Tuesday, August 21, 2007: Just for You Mom - With Love

My mother-in-law will be 90 next month. I don't think she would mind me telling you that. It's something to be proud of - especially because of the way she has spent her 90 years.

I made this scrapbook page for her birthday.

It wasn't easy to represent 90 years in one page. I hope it doesn't look too cluttered. There's Mom as a daughter, bride, mother and grandmother. The e. e. cummings quote is, "Love is the whole and more than all." Maybe that captures Mom better than the photos.

When we were young newlyweds and our son was just a baby, we lost just about everything we owned when our apartment building burned down.

Mom and Dad took us in. For six weeks, while we put our lives back together, Chris and I shared a trundle bed with the baby's crib beside us in a 10 by 10-foot room.

I went back to work; Chris went back to school; and Mom took care of the baby. She continued to care for Johnny while I worked for three more years, until he started kindergarten.

She was a godsend to a first-time mom in a very stressful time and a wonderful influence on our son.

How can one ever repay such selflessness? Happy Birthday Mom!

Mom's scrapbook page uses the following Scrap Girls products: