Today is my 41st birthday (a whole year since this) – so whilst the theme of the gallery this week is ‘Mothers’ – it’s also pretty pertinent, as without mine – I wouldn’t be celebrating today!
I love this photo of Mum taken *a few* years ago (and clearly not by me!). It also highlights how important it is to keep photos. Nowadays we can take a quick snap with our phone whilst out and about – but back in the 50s it would have been much more of an ‘event’ – but so lovely that Mum still has lots of photos of her youth. I save mine onto the computer and then weekly to an external hard drive – just to ensure I don’t ‘lose’ them.
So this is a post to say ‘Thank you Mother’ for having me 41 years ago (she was in labour from 9 ’til 5 – perhaps I should have been called Dolly?!) and for everything you’ve done since and still do for me now. She was round after school yesterday performing hair cuts for our youngest girls!
This is my entry for this week’s #thegallery over on The Sticky Fingers blog – do go and see how others have interpreted the theme of ‘Mothers’.
The theme for The Photo Gallery over on the Sticky Fingers blog this week is ‘babies’ – and for this I have no shortage of photos, having had 4 of them!!
We had a girl and a boy in quick succession – not like an 18 minute twin gap, but an 18 month, all a bit of a blur gap! But after a traumatic birth with both (I had 200 stitches after number 1, and number 2 was born blue and still in his sack) we decided we’d ridden our luck and that would be it – so husband had the snip.
Fast forward 4 and a half years, and I’m stood in M&S in Redditch weeping, buying my little boy grey uniform trousers as my baby was growing up and about to start school. Before becoming parents (and realising what we’d let ourselves in for) we’d always said we wanted loads of kids – and so husband didn’t need much persuading to have his vasectomy reversed and within 6 weeks we were pregnant again!!
And as I have an issue with odd numbers (freakish I know) we always knew that we’d have 4 kids – so number 4 came along pretty soon afterwards!
This is the first photo of all 4 of my babies together – and I still get a bit teary eyed looking at it…..
Although not teary eyed enough to have number 5 (and 6)……..
Apparently I am not allowed to use ‘sh*t’ as the collective noun for Christmas decorations etc, seemingly it’s not festive to be so negative.
I am renowned in my family for being The Grinch when it comes to Christmas. There is many a photo of me in a shop where the husband is looking well excited about all of the decorations and me, well, less so….
The Christmas shop in Bloomingdales in New York
To be honest, until I met the husband, I wasn’t Christmas-phobic – but he is soooooo Christmas obsessed, I feel that I need to off set this somehow.
A couple of years ago there was a serious injury in the erection of the Christmas decorations in the Price household. The husband managed, whilst cutting a tunnel through a mountainside for the Christmas village, to sever a vein in his arm that required stitches (3 times, because it kept bursting underneath the stitches – grim!)
and so that year they were literally ‘bloody Christmas decorations’.
This year, when I popped back from the office on Friday, I found that reinforcements had been called in – there were 3 company vans on the drive having delivered 2 carpenters, 2 painters and a contract supervisor to assist with Christmas – and some sort of sleigh with reindeer on the patio outside:
I then went out for the evening with some of the local Mums – and when I staggered in at 1.30am it appeared that someone had vomited Christmas all over the house all evening……….
And the Christmas village isn’t even finished yet! Here’s am amazing photo of it last year taken by my talented photographer friend Bee.
Apparently there are some electrical works that need completing before this year’s is ready to be viewed (my sister was overheard yesterday complaining that the one in her local garden centre is nowhere near up to our standards!!)
So today – we spiced up the festive cheer with a trip to the German market in the centre of Birmingham. Admittedly some of it remains traditionally German – but the ‘do you want 4 doughnuts for a fiver, bab?’ is pretty Brummie!! The gluhwein was ridiculously pricey (given what you can buy a bottle for from Aldi / Lidl / your sister’s local shop in Munich) – and this year we DIDN’T KEEP THE MUGS (there are only so many small rubbish mugs one family can house!) But the kids had fun – mostly due to the carousel and expensive Olaf and Hello Kitty balloons that almost strangled half of New Street on the walk back to the car.
So when I was given this present by my sister via my parents this afternoon – it pretty much summed up the next month for me:
Although I did watch the Strictly results show with Rudolph tonight………
I’m re-posting this to link in with The Sticky Fingers Blog for The Photo Gallery week 212 where the theme is Christmas – as this is our Christmas!!! Do pop across and see what Christmas is like for other bloggers………….
The prompt for The Gallery this week over on Sticky Fingers is ‘Being a Parent’ – and given I’m doing that, four times over, there should be plenty of scope for pictures.
So in the end I plumped for a photo of my 40th birthday earlier this year. I had A LOT of celebrations (in fact they’re still ongoing – I’m milking this one for all it’s worth!) including a big black tie party for lots of family and friends – but this sums up being a parent for me – a fabulous banner painted by my kids and their smiling proud faces – makes it all worth it!
(I should point out it was also, randomly, ‘Where’s Wally’ day at school on my 40th birthday – the oldest two don’t always dress like that!!!)
This is my entry to The Photo Gallery this week – do have a look at how other people have interpreted being a parent……
This Price is Usually Right 