Holidays Are All About Family

I know this blog is about my hypnosis shows but I just wrote a blog entry on my photography blog I believe is important for everyone to read. I will copy it here and it is my holiday wish to everyone…

I was cleaning out my basement the other day and came across an old box. Inside was two baby books containing photos of my first birthday in 1954 to my Long Island, NY childhood days into 1960. I spent a couple of days scanning these precious photos that I had entirely forgoten about. These baby books also contain the writings of my mother as if it were me doing the conversation. These short writings were about my life as an very young boy. My mother wrote about my first haircut as if it were me descibing it, my first birthday party, etc. These book were filled with memories as well as my real birthday cards. These were cards sent to my mom and dad on the occasion of my birth. I cannot tell you about the emotions I went through as I looked at these photos and read all the word my mother had written and the crads that were sent. There was even all the documentation of the hospital visit. By the way, the doctor charged my mother $15 to deliver me. Room and board for the 3 day hospital stay was $9. Can’t put a price on the memories.
I was fortunate to have family photos like these. I have photos through my years in high school and beyond.

I now have a wonderful family, my wife, 2 grown sons, both with wonderful girlfriends. We get to spend time with one of my future daughter-in-law’s family during the Chanukah and other Jewish Holidays. They have a large family, from great grand parents to real young cousins. But they don’t take photos at these gathering. What a waste. This is time you don’t get back. When the older family members pass on, there will be no record for the younger members to have.

As I said, I was fortunate to have these irreplaceable photographs. The reason I say this, my mother died of cancer in late 1959. These are my only visible memories of her, although I have many fragmented memories of the times we spent. I have 2 younger brothers, both live in Georgia. I don’t see them or their families much. My dad, now 80 years young and my mother (my dad remarried in the early 1960s) live in Florida, where I grew up after my mother’s passing. When we get together, you better believe there are cameras everywhere.

So here’s my holiday wish to everyone. BE A NUISANCE. Get that camera out and shoot photos. Get individual shots, get group shots, get someone else to take the photo and you get in the picture. Take memories and share them with everyone. To make it easy for everyone to see these , put them on Flickr, or any of the other photo sites. Make a special gallery on your web page. Just do what it takes to make these family gathering memorable. It’s the best gift I can think of.

Even though I am Jewish, my household always celebrated Christmas. (More presents for me as a kid).

Here’s a photo of me in 1955, two and half years old. I was adorable!

Happy and healthy holidays to everyone, and to all a very prosperous and memorable 2010.

Please pass this blog post on to all your friends, family members, twitter buddies, facebook friends and everyone else you know. They will all thank you for this.

Now here’s the photo: