This weekend we had a birthday celebration for Mom and Dad. Their birthdays are less than two weeks apart, and this was Dad's 80th... so we thought we'd better do something special.

Emma helped me hang up balloons and other colorful decorations, to make things festive.

Leila helped me take down the balloons (maybe a little sooner than I would have liked), and distribute them around the house.

Since I had to cook lots of food for our gathering, I decided to have fun with it and go "exotic". We had an interesting assortment of dishes from countries like Morocco, Tunisia, and Turkey.

Of course, that was followed by birthday cake and ice cream!

Jonathan joined us for lunch but had to leave early, for work. Here he is with my sister Laurie.

After the meal, Mom and Dad opened presents. A highlight was John and Laurie's gift to Dad.

Laurie wanted to get Dad something special for his 80th. So she called the Chamber of Commerce in Ladysmith, to see if they had any interesting old photos of Dad's family.

They didn't, but the elderly lady she spoke to told her that they did have a few available copies of a nice leather-bound book called "The History of Rusk County". She asked Laurie what the family name was and, when told, responded knowingly "Yes, of course-- the Bragg family."

While on the phone with Laurie, she looked up "Bragg" in the book she'd mentioned. There was a section on Dad's family. Amazingly, it included a photo of Dad's parents, and had been written by none other than Dad's mother... my Grandma Bragg!

Laurie told the lady that she definitely wanted a copy of the book (there were only six left). The lady promised to mail it to her that day (even before receiving any money from Laurie) so she'd get it in time for the party. To send it so soon, she shipped it at her own expense, telling Laurie, "I'll let you know what the postage is and you can send me a check later."

Laurie wasn't sure whether or not Dad was aware of the book. So after she and John gave it to him, she asked. Dad was completely unaware that the book existed. He was surprised, excited, and-- as you can imagine-- touched. Here was a history of his family recorded for posterity in a beautiful published book-- and in his own mother's words.

It's truly a wonderful thing.

I gave Mom and Dad a couple of drawings I made (unfortunately there's a bit of a glare on the glass in this photo, so you can't see them very well here). The drawings are of Mom and Dad's most recent grandchildren, Leila and Stephen.

I also gave Mom a shadow box full of miniatures, meant to tell a story about her. The box includes a sewing area, a hutch full of glass collectibles, and pictures of things she enjoys-- like horses and Elvis. But my favorite element is a tiny version of the portrait they have in their living room... it shows a young, Madonna-like Mom holding me when I was a newborn baby.


I'll close with a couple of cute photos of the girls-- at left, having a tea party... and below, Leila reading a book.

Happy Birthday, Mom and Dad!!