Thanks to digital cameras, our family takes a lot of photos when we are all together. I always choose one of the whole family and one or two of the kids and grandkids and make 5 x7 enlargements for home, for my office, or for both.

Usually I just place the new pictures in the frame on top of the old ones, but last week I had to remove the old ones so that I could close the frame.

You may remember Dorian Gray, the handsome young man who, upon seeing his portrait, made a deal with the devil that his portrait would age while he would remain young. Gray turned out to be quite a cad, but a good-looking cad at that. I thought of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray when I spread the old pictures on the dining room table.

Suddenly, the last seventeen years were facing me:

1994 –The four of us at Jeremy's college graduation

1997 –The four of us at home on some occasion when we all lived in the same city

2002—Jeremy and Katrina's wedding—and we were a family of five

2005—Peter's 75^th birthday celebration in Oaxaca—with Leo, age one, we became six

2006—A visit to Maryland—we are six and two-thirds with Grady on the way

2008—The Berkshires—to celebrate our 40^th wedding anniversary—count is up to seven

2009—Last year's Thanksgiving family picture

Unlike Gray, I am still young in the 1994 photo. But not in the mirror.