Yeah, it's another off topic from me.

My Mom turned 82 today. My sister doesn't have a lot of money but a lot of love and talent. Mom lives in a retirement community. It's a very old building that was originally a retired teachers apartment complex. They are studio, one or two bedroom apartments. Full of old wood, and antiques, just the place my Mom loves.

Anyway, back to her birthday. My sister has been practising this for months. She took piano lessons for years and has kept up with it, (I didn't). So she played a lot of Mom's favorites. The activities director put in in the weekly program as a special concert so Mom wouldn't know. Mom has been either the church pianist or organist for as long as I can remember. She and Dad came as a package. Dad was the minister and mom the pianist. When they were short special music, Dad would have all of us kids come up and we had all the different parts covered and we could sing pretty much anything. So Today my sis played the piano and then her and I would sing. Then my youngest daughter snuck in and she joined us. We weren't perfect but Mom loves us anyway and that's all that counts. When it was over, we took requests from some of the other residents and had a goods ole time.

Then Mom, sis and I went out to eat and to Hobby lobby and shopped till we dropped! Mom has recently gotten into scrap booking and card making. Some ladies from a local church come in once a month , bring a lot of supplies and work one on one with whoever wants to. Since Mom was a preschool director or teacher most of her life, she is very crafty and she just soaks it all up.

She got cards or letters from all her friends and relatives. She called me late this evening and was just so happy. You don't have to give an expensive gold necklace or whatever to make a person happy. Just love them. I think the only thing that would have Mom happier was for her to go and be with her Lord and Dad who has been dead for 6 years now.