El dia de los muertos

Waiting for the family to arrive ( really bad traffic) for our fall 5 member libra/Scorpio birthday party but since it’s also el dia de los muertos I decided to make an altar to a few of our dead.  My parents and Herbs parents.  Both our boys knew them but not the grandchildren.  So we’re going to talk about them a bit. A happy occasion.   A pharmacy bottle  jewelry and aquavit glass and flowers, little saws  and opera glasses  etc etc,   Fiona helped with the sugar skulls but she said she doesn’t know any one well who is dead except their cat, Java,  so we’ve added Java and our irish setter, Rusty.    Maybe a tradition here?   Might add some extras from dinner later.... 
oh dear I don’t know why the photo is sideways..... maybe I can fix??    It’s not sideways on the iPad... Edit:  used a different view... extra : key lime birthday cake and grandkids.. too tired for more.. will do a Flickr set tomorrow