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Saturday, June 2, 2012

Lang may yer lum reek

That's an old Scottish saying for "May you live long and stay well".
Scottish? you say.  By the name of our blog, I'm sure you thought we were French...and we are...on my husband's side.  My side is Scottish. 
My children are proud of their family heritage on both sides.  Whenever any family comes to visit, the children love to sit and hear all the old stories and learn all they can about their family history.
My Aunt has done extensive research on our family lineage, tracing all the way back to the Mayflower!  She also owns a family cottage on Deer Isle in Maine.  Deer Isle was the original settling place for my ancestors, the Greenlaws - there and Nova Scotia.
There was a Greenlaw reunion on Nova Scotia a few years ago.  Through letters, my aunt shared extensively with the children, especially Caleb, about the activities, the ceremonies, the games.  A special tartan was even created for the Greenlaw sect. 
Lots of letters are shared between the children and their great aunt.  Caleb expressed on a number of occasions to her that he would very much like to have a kilt in the Greenlaw tartan, but how that seemed a far-off dream!  Because of the many pleats, kilts require a lot of fabric.  In one book, he read that it takes 9-1/2 yards! Our special tartan fabric is rare and quite expensive.  Caleb's goal was to save enough money to be able to buy the yardage needed to have a kilt made.  During the time of the reunion, Aunt Barbara made several contacts and one was with a kilt-maker.  She recently contacted him to find out just how much yardage was needed to make a kilt.  To her happy surprise it required much less than the 9-1/2.  His dream was getting closer.   Caleb had enough money saved for the fabric.  For a graduation gift, Aunt Barbara arranged to get the fabric sent from Deer Isle to Mr. MacIsaac, the kilt maker on Nova Scotia Island and paid for his labor costs to have it made! 

Yesterday, a package arrived for Caleb...from Nova Scotia




 The flashes



   Does he look happy...or what?!

 The Kilt!


The workmanship is amazing.  The MacIsaac's were such a pleasure to work with.  When my aunt first arranged this whole thing, she instructed me to go to their website to see how to measure Caleb and then to call Mac MacIsaac and speak with him about the measurements and how I took them...just to be sure.  I measured, remeasured, and remeasured!  I was so nervous.  There was a lot at stake, but Mr. MacIsaac set all my fears at ease.   You'll have to wait to see Caleb wearing it.  The first time will be to his graduation.  He will wear it with pride.

2 comments:

  1. This is sooooo awesome! Can't wait to see him in it! Jeff will be so thrilled for him, too! What a blessing your aunt is to your children!

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  2. Jeff and Caleb will have to attend a Highland Games together....wearing their kilts, of course.

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