Category: CELEBRATE

We’ve got several milestone birthdays this year!

Daddy turned 80 the week after Josh turned 30, so Mom and I organized a surprise virtual celebration.

We set up the link in Google Meets and tested a few times with Aunt Darlene before we had the invitations finalized.

We pulled out the old photos and picked a few and went to Etsy to create the invitation.

We then found a cool poster on Etsy from the same seller.

I then went to Staples.com and had the poster mounted on posterboard.  (Unfortunately, there was not option to pick it up at the store.)  Delivery was scheduled, but did not arrive in time for the celebration.  I might not use them again, or would order farther in advance.

My oldest brother and I went in on a flower and balloon bouquet, so dad would have some decorations in the background of his virtual celebration.  I ordered those online through the local florist, and scheduled delivery for his special day.  I also put a bag of balloons in my suitcase, as I was likely going to be away for his actual birthday.

Mom and I picked up an apple pie at Sam’s Club and I ordered huge golden 80 candles from Amazon.

For his gift, I ordered a Storyworth subscription.  For one year, he will receive weekly prompts to write about his life and memories, and at the end of the year, he will receive a hard bound book with all of his stories printed out.

For the actual event, I had just arrived in Indonesia.  I pulled the balloons from my suitcase and inflated them before I called (on Google Meets!) to wish my dad a Happy Birthday.  We were chatting away when the other guests started to pop onto the screen!  He was so surprised.  Everyone chatted and mom pulled out the apple pie and lit the candles.  It really was a huge success, and my dad was so happy to be able to celebrate his special day, even with everyone so far away.

Josh turned 30 this year.  I decided to make him a ‘this is your life’ video for his birthday.

This was no easy task for someone as technologically challenged as I am.

I rounded up all of my SIM cards and imported them to the computer.

I went through all of my printed photos and scanned about 100 of them.  Unfortunately, I did not do a good job at putting dates on the photos…so I did my best to guess the correct order!

I photographed photos that were already pasted into scrapbooks.

Attempting to use the mini dvds from a Sony Handycam, I found that they would not play on the computer.  I even ordered an external DVD reader, but I ended up having to download something called VLC Media Player, which was only able to read about half of my discs.

I recently heard of a service called LegacyBox and decided to give them a try.  You mail in your old video tapes/reel to reel videos, and they digitize them.  I placed my order online, and they sent me a box to put my media into with bar code labels to help keep track of everything sent.  I mailed off (from Vilnius) a box of 17 miniature video cassettes, and within a few weeks, I received the digital files.  (and a few weeks later, I received my tapes back.)

I shared a few of the files with family.  A video of Josh and Jerry when they were around 3-5 years old making (and decorating!) a cake for their great grandma, who is no longer with us, had us laughing and crying!

I had to laugh while watching Josh open a Brittany Spears CASSETTE TAPE, that was in his Easter basket.  He was so excited to receive it!  (I don’t know that kids these days know what those are!)

And then while watching him at Christmas, I heard the FILM rewind in a 35mm camera that was being used.  I can’t remember when I last heard that sound!

After gathering all of my resources, I then had to learn how to use Adobe Premiere Pro to string everything together into a video!   I worked on this for over four months, and it was really challenging, but I got it finished in time for his birthday.  And it brought him to tears.

Mission accomplished!

Happy 30^th Birthday Josh!