A family tree worth fighting for

I have been working on this portable family tree magnetic game, and finished it just in time for the 33rd Annual Florida State Genealogical Society Conference.

The family tree mat was created with a 8.5x11 page and the family face pieces using a 5x7 invitation.

I then cropped and glued them on 1 inch wood tassels, completing them by sticking a magnet behind each piece.

As a finishing touch, I applied a shiny layer of a clear gloss medium.

I was doing this while in the hotel room the night before the conference, and could hardly keep my kids away from them while the coating dried.

When they woke up this morning, the first thing they wanted to do was playing with their family tree.

They were still in their pajamas, not even caring about breakfast. They HAD to play...

I had to establish turns, as they started fighting on who was putting this or that picture on the tree.

Little by little, they started putting the faces in the right places.

My heart melted each time they would tell me who that person was, and even more when they got to the point that they would remember and just tell me "this is Nana's mom, my great grandma", "This is nonno Oreste!" and so on.

They didn't like it when I had to take the game to display at the genealogical conference, but I promised them they would play more tonight.

I am thinking to make more copies of this game, maybe personalizing it for each of my children, so there will be no more fighting, and I will be able to just enjoy seeing them playing while impressing the faces and names of their ancestors in their mind, and hopefully their heart too.