The year was 1982 and Brian and Patty had been married for just over a year. They were poor, but they were happy, and they were anxiously awaiting the birth of their first child! Patty was hoping for an early delivery because she knew that both her and her brother had been born early, but that wasn't to be. The due date, October 23rd, came and went. They went in to the doctor over and over, only to be sent home, "sorry honey, it's not time yet."
Finally, November 25th, Thanksgiving Day, rolls around. Patty was exhausted, she was a month over due and couldn't remember the last time she'd gotten a decent nights sleep! She went in to the hospital to see if she could get some sleeping medicine to take after the family dinner at Brian's Fathers house later on that day. Since it was an American holiday all of the Doctors on shift were foreign. Apparently it was much more common at the time to induce people in England than America - and as luck would have it - Patty got a British doctor!
The Doctor took one look at Patty's chart and said, "Would you like to have this baby today?" "Yes, please!"
Late that afternoon, a beautiful baby girl was born. Despite the fact that the baby was over a month late - Patty took one look at her little girl and said, "Let's have another one!"
As you may have guessed - that baby girl was me! My birthday doesn't always fall on Thanksgiving Day, but I think celebrating my birthday at that time every year has taught me a lot about looking for the things in life that we can be thankful for. One of my favorite family traditions has always been that we go in a circle around the table and take turns listing what we are thankful for in the last year - and I'm going to have so much to say this year!
Of course, I'll admit that there was times when I hated having my birthday around a holiday, it was soooo hard to plan a party! I did have them though. My cousin and I are only 4 months apart and the picture here at the bottom is from I think my 6th or 7th birthday? I don't know for sure. It was the only appropriate pic I had on photobucket and I don't have time to go upload photos from home today :P
I'm thinking next time I do something like this I should take more "along the way" pictures so I can give you a better idea of what's involved... There are a lot of steps! First you have to secure the cabochon to the material with glue. Which is really only a temporary hold. Then you bead around the cabochon and up the sides to truly secure it. Then you do the embroidery all around it to fill out whatever pattern/shape you desire. Then you glue all of that to a piece of ultra suede backing material and let that dry. Then you go around the edges with more beads. THEN, in this case at least, you glue it to the hair barrette! 
