A Birthaversary!

Now that all suitcases are unpacked, the sand has been washed out of our clothes, and we are all settled back into life’s wonderful routine, I tell the story of our “birthaversary.”
To say that it takes time for me to make something happen is a little bit of an understatement. I began this project about eight years ago as Art I realized that we were reaching our 40th anniversary. I began to dream of celebrating with all of our children and grandchildren at some remote château in the south of France. I found many lovely places that spoke to my heart as being just right, but getting the whole family in tow was next to impossible. You all know how hard it is to get family together if one lives in the same town; much less if they are mostly scattered to the four corners of this country.
I put the thought aside for a little while (about eight years) and five new grandchildren were added to the mix. Sometimes delay is a good thing!
This was the year, 2016, in spite of our 50th year mark being two years off, we chose to speak of it as if it were so. (Life is uncertain – celebrate when the urge comes!) I begin the planning on my trusty Apple computer in the kitchen. Very soon I began to long for the days when I could go to Ginny and Irv Posternock’s travel agency and give them details: 18 traveling, small budget, two highly allergic children, warm sandy beach and activities that suit everyone aged 71 down to 18 months. Now I know why they retired from the business! Planning that much fun is hard work!
Fortunately, I found someone to help me after weeks of trying to match schedules and resorts. So on a magic day in March, two days after my 71st birthday, all of us met in Cancun (the dream of a French château had long ago died) within about four hours of one another. That coming together from so many different places and ending up at one certain spot on our planet causes me to marvel at the feat of man!
There we were, just as I had dreamed those years back – all together on a warm beach and time to refresh our family ties. Nobody had to cook – no one had to clean – there was absolutely no scheduled to meet. (There was, however, an army of wonderful, friendly, charming Mexican staff members who did all of those things for us).
Those who wanted could meet for breakfast and those who wanted to sleep could do that. Few children could possibly choose to sleep when there were so many things to do and cousins to do them with.
Our Florida family came pre-tanned and the rest of us, coming from Chicago, Wildwood Crest and Louisiana, looked as white as a slug under a log. Can you imagine the time we spent applying sunscreen?  There was only one sunburn catastrophe on the whole trip, and that was our fair-skinned Fiona. Two trips to the on-site doctor for stomach bugs for Frances (Chicago) and Keith-Michael (Wildwood Crest) were taken in stride as part of the price of travel.
And so the week flowed with love, reacquaintance, fun and celebration. The kids could to hardly wrap their imaginations around a two-year advance acknowledgement of our anniversary. The fact that the vacation was in my birth month caused them to call it a “Birthaversary” and so it became in all our celebratory singing, dinners and cards.
Happy “Birthaversary” to ya’ll! And so it goes down in the Hall memories as the best “Birthaversary” ever.  Maybe in two years we will have the real thing – now that we know how it’s done! 2018 =  golden 50.
Patricia Hall
From the Bible:  May the Lord bless and protect you, be gracious to you, show you his favor, and give you his peace.’ From Numbers