Gallery Genesis

The concept of the photo gallery originated from MacGyver's sister in 2001. At that time there were only fifteen grandchildren on his side of the family. MacGyver's sister bought fifteen picture frames and requested the siblings (and in-laws) to provide blow-up photos of each of the grandchildren. She then cleared one wall in the living room of their parents' house and set up the gallery.

The original photos can be seen in Gallery - Part 1.

In case you didn't recognize the children, GI is apo #7, RD is apo #10 and MyGirl, who was the youngest grandchild then, is #15.

MyGirl was the youngest on that side until new cousins came along in 2003 and 2004. Alas, #16 and #17 had to have their photos 'appended' above the original gallery since there was no more space below the third row.

I wanted Father and Mother to have something similar, so I got simple 8" x 10" frames for us at Cebu Avenue. In 2002, there were only five of them on our side. GI and RD, then the children of Eldest Sis, then MyGirl. We set up our mini-gallery in the living room upstairs (where my Norman Rockwell cross-stitch project was originally displayed). This was the beginning of Gallery - Part 2.

As more of my sisters got married and had children, the gallery slowly expanded to eight. Jersey Girl had two boys and Mindy had one girl.

I had bought extra frames when we put up the three for the new additions to the family. I wanted there to be some semblance of uniformity in our gallery. I figured with so many siblings married, we would surely hit ten grandkids.

Unfortunately, these spare frames got tucked away in the piano seat for quite some time. Mother would often tease me that she had the extra frames available, hinting that she wanted more grandchildren. I had a standard response to that. I would tell her, "Quota, Mother. I've reached my quota. You have to have your other children fill up those frames."

As the saying goes, "All in God's time."

True enough, in June 2006, Mindy had her second baby. Then in October of 2007, Sunshine had her first. Sunshine's baby was the tenth grandchild in our family. Not to be outdone, Slash M gave Father and Mother apo #11 this year.

For Father's birthday last year, we got him the divider with frames. There were 15 slots available in this 5 x 3 divider, so by our count we could have photos for each of the nine grandchildren and place family photos in the six other slots.

It took us forever to find the blow-up photos we wanted to post. GI and Noelle were the only two kids with photos at first. So whenever we had visitors, they would ask who that girl was posted on the other 14 frames. Father got quite upset at the recurring question that he practically begged us to fill up the gallery. (I pulled out the pictures of that girl as fast as I could.)


We set an internal cut-off to fill up the gallery. Gallery - Part 3 was taking shape. As we got pictures of the grandchildren blown up for the gallery and placed them in the frames, Mother started getting ideas of her own. She decided she not only wanted to have her grandchildren in the gallery, but she also wanted her children there. She figured that she could use the front AND the back of the divider. (Yes, there definitely was enough space for all ten of us now.)

So she got our graduation pictures from our study room tables and had them recopied. We decided to include individual photos of Father and Mother and one of their wedding photos to complete the family gallery.

If you do the math, you would know that 10 (kids) + 2 (Father and Mother) + 1 (wedding) = 13. That left 2 extra slots in the 5 x 3 photo gallery. If you check out Gallery - Part 4, you would find all fifteen frames filled up. For some odd reason, while nine of us have only our college graduation pictures posted on the gallery, Z got her grade school, high school AND college picture snuck in there. (Mother defends this by saying there has to be some advantage for being the only one left in the nest. In her defense, Z says that when Mother had the graduation photos recopied, she found all of Z's pictures in the single frame and simply decided to have Z's grade school and high school grad pics recopied along with the rest.)

If you know my mother, then you would know that she will not stop at a teeny-tiny 5 x 3 (times 2) photo gallery. She went off to National Bookstore and initially bought twenty-five plastic sleeve things. Then she went back and bought thirty more. That made it fifty-five (yes, 55!) plastic sleeve things. She was DETERMINED to have an expanded gallery.

More pictures! MORE!

She moved the puzzles (Hong Kong and New York) that had been hanging in the dining room wall for years and had us measure points at which we could place hooks for the plastic sleeves. The initial plan was a 4 x 5 gallery. That would give enough place for Father and Mother together, one for each of the grandchildren (9 at that time), family pictures for the 5 married children and one each for the 5 (then) unmarried ones. It would have been perfect!

Perfect for about two seconds, that is.

Mother decreed that she wanted MORE than More. She wanted as many as the wall could take! (She did have the fifty-five plastic sleeves, remember?)

So more frames went up. Now the wall has 48 of those plastic sleeves. Gallery - Part 5 was born.


The rest of the sleeves have been filled with pictures as well. These plastic sleeves are simply propped up along another wall of the dining room. The pictures in the sleeves seem to be constantly changing. And the sleeves themselves seem to be arranged differently every weekend when we visit. Apparently, they have become part of the furniture (but that is a different story altogether).

I'm certainly glad that we started the galleries at Cebu Avenue. It is quite impressive to see so many pictures. Besides it makes Mother and Father very happy to see all their children and grandchildren while they are eating.

P.S. We have yet to figure out how to put Baby Elle in Galleries 2 and 3. And Slash M has yet to submit his family photo to update his photo in Gallery 5. We can tell that the photo is old because that is him trying to woo his love with his guitar. (Apparently, it worked!)