I'm slowly (but surely!) going through my desktop and photo files (cue horror movie noise here) and I found this pretty little picture from this past August when we went to Lake Tahoe to celebrate my Grandpa's 80th birthday (here and here).
We rented the "meeting room" at my Grandpa's favorite beach-front hotel and had a beautiful party. My brother, Dustin, Colin (my sister, Effie's man) and I made h'orderves for the party and the rest of the meal was catered. My uncle Brian had made a slide show of a billion pictures from Grandpa's past and we sat down as a family and watched the years go buy. Dustin and I were seriously salivating over Grandpa's and my late Grandma Carol's clothes. Mad Men, true life. It was amazing.
We set the timer on the camera and took a family photo to finalize the event. Grandpa is the cute old man in the middle, bottom row with the striped shirt, pocket protector, suspenders and top hat on. People, he doesn't even realize how hip he's dressed.. the suspenders are to keep his pants up and the pocket protector houses one of his favorite mechanical pencils and some note cards. The top hat is pure silliness and he's got the goofiest grin spread across his face. He is surrounded by his whole family, living and passed. My Grandma and Aunt (my Mom's twin sister) are buried (well, part of their ashes are at least) at the beach down the road from the hotel. I had no idea, but Tahoe holds a special place in my Mother's family's hearts, as they used to visit yearly while my mother was growing up. I can't imagine how hard it is (and peaceful at the same time ) to visit the town and exact beach where part of my sister and mother lay to rest. That's a part of life that I'm not fully ready to fathom - losing my family, that is.
I am so thankful and blessed that I was able to be present at such an event in my Grandfather's life. I'm also thankful that Grandpa was able to meet my sweet little Roman (who was so tiny at the time! Gah!). What a gift.
Family rocks.
Grandpa's annual Christmas party is this weekend and I couldn't be more excited to get pictures of my boy with his great Grandpa!
xo,
Violet
What a sweet picture and story! Funny how a place can hold so much significance. <3
Posted by: Caitlin | 12/05/2011 at 12:26 PM
Auh~ Did you literally mean billions of pictures of your Grandpa’s past? Did the slideshow have those? Hm… after seeing a photo of your Grandpa, I can tell that he has many friends and experiences! He’s actually hip… It’s good that he doesn’t know, ‘coz he’ll probably change his fashion sense… Well, he rocked that outfit for his 80th birthday!
Posted by: Alice Byrne | 03/15/2012 at 06:53 AM