One week ago I was inwardly fretting about the upcoming biennial Family Reunion and here I am absolutely stunned at how magical the entire event was!!! Words cannot describe the incredible experience. In the last 14 years we have done this 7 times. We inherited a family timeshare condo, that my sister uses on the "even" years and we take the "odd". It seems appropriate that our years would be the odd ones!! This year our t-shirts were aptly inscribed with:
Remember, as far as anyone knows, we're a nice normal family.
Really. Who knows? The planets were in proper alignment? I know prayers ascended from Terry and I. prayers for safety and prayers of attendees all enjoying time together. We say it was miraculous so I guess the answer is....we were 100% blessed.
We have 5 children and they are as different as can be in every respect. At times the common ground seems to be our last name!! Also a uniting factor, our shared time together of rather primitive Alaskan living.
It feels like we have 2 sets of children within the whole family. We had 2 boys and then a girl. An 8 year span and we adopted a newborn son. Another 4 years and we adopted another newborn son. When the last little guy arrived, the first son, was a senior in high school! So our daughter, our rose amongst the thorns, was the youngest child in the first set of brothers and the oldest sister in the last set of brothers. (That is a very long time to have children in the house for a constant 34 years!!!) 4 of our 5 children (#2-5), with their families, were at our reunion and truly it was stupendous!
As we have talked about why things clicked as a combination, in spite of extreme diversity on some personality points, there are some things that really pulled things together. First- each REALLY wanted to be there and so did their spouses and their children. Second- They came to experience the reunion and not a separate family vacation with just their group. They didn't wander off on a private agenda and exclude people or distance themselves by not fully participating in planned events.
I ended up thinking those were the 2 keys to the success of the week. Maybe this is the summation...
they wanted to be there and fully participated via conversation or activities.
I guess the location helped also. Because we don't choose variety but repeat the same place each year, the children/grandchildren have grown accustomed to the layout of the grounds and wander freely to the club house, pool, etc. They aren't getting lost. Parents are comfortable as it's a small place to keep an eye on small people. I've been surprised, at the familiarity with the surroundings the children have and how it grows each year and more freedom to wander is extended to them as they age.
Every event, included old to young being teammates and that made for a unifying feeling also. We had oodles of things planned and of course could not do them all but we had so much fun with the many we did. Jeanee, our daughter, a former Royal Caribbean Cruise Ship Hostess, headed up our activities and she did wonderful!!
We had a Bingo night and I wondered if we were gambling and my sweet DIL, Lorrie, told me-- unless people paid to play or used their money that it was just a game. It was a fun night!
We had a birthday night and ended dinner with 2 birthday cakes and all the banners, table cloths etc., hats, plates, candles etc. plus sang Happy Birthday, with groups of names, from original 5 children to our 2 Gr-Gr-children.
We had an Olympics night with 3 games and the family divided into 2 teams and that included a 3 legged-race using pillowcases!
We had a beach day and rented 3 wave-runners. That day was incredible with water activities for all. Sand sculptures and castles and people being buried. Floating on Old Blue....the many years old double-decker queen sized air mattress.
Christmas! We had Christmas in July! This was long a dream of mine and it turned out beyond anything I could have conjured up. Early that day, it was still cool from the mountain air, when they stepped into our Condo...truly it felt like Christmas. Snowflakes on the door, Christmas music, candy cane laden- 6' Christmas tree with a beautiful golden bejeweled skirt, Christmas lights wound around stair banister, suspended- on a snow shovel propped up extension cord!- were individual Christmas stockings filled with goodies and 20 individual gifts wrapped under the tree. The White Elephant gifts were used that night for a riotous game after dinner. We all wore Santa hats and our family T-shirts passed out the night before. It was a dream come true to have this special day. We truly felt the Christmas Spirit!
We ended that day with with a full turkey dinner that we enjoyed plus pumpkin pie! Food during the week was excellent and another plus towards a successful time together.
s'mores.
Lorrie cooked a wonderful Mexican meal that had 3 main dishes.
Jeanee cooked a delish spaghetti dinner.
Terry made Sourdough pancakes daily for breakfast plus.....
his famous Poor Man's Mush one night. At that, slathered in butter/cinnamon/sugar wallpaper-paste Mush meal, our DIL Maurine, brought over a gorgeous spinach/strawberry/feta cheese salad with Raspberry vinaigrette.
See, that is one of the differences in our family....we have vegans, vegetarians, carnivores, junk food junkies and organic purists but it all works out fine and is not stressful. Well, it's not to me at this point in my life! No one preaches/finds fault/makes comments. We just eat and laugh and talk and enjoy our meals, however they turn out as far as what is served, and have a good time.
We have fitness folks and the not-so-fit bunch. Our youngest son, training with the hope of qualifying for the Boston Marathon, would arise early and run 17 miles around the lake before breakfast. Others would run less but challenge each other to racket ball or tennis. We have the "sit and watch others" folks. We have fair/medium/darker skinned children. We have eyes of every hue. Hair with store bought color and hair of all natural shades from black to blond. All exists in our family mix. We even have (gasp!) someone with tattoos!! He also enjoys being a cage fighting referee. (Hurry!! smelling salts! Puh-leeze!) He was born loving adrenal rushes and that persists to this day. I have been blessed by his gentle compassionate love, since the day I flew from Anchorage to Seattle and picked him up at 1-1/2 days, to come home. He is moved to tears with sentimentality.
We are not cookie cutter people, in spite of my past efforts trying to squeeze them/us into the mold of acceptability! Not sure who is the acceptability judge but I know the Lord loves us.
We have families that daily study the scriptures and yes, we have family members that do not. Every person said Amen when prayers/blessings were said. A Grandson, rather newly ordained as an Elder in preparation for his mission, administered to me when I was sick. It was beautiful to experience that. Equally so, was seeing his Father and Grandpa, 3 generations, standing beside my bed.
One evening, Jeanee, David and Benjamin, came in together. Seeing these three standing arm-in-arm brought back the years when their ages were 16, 8 and 4 and spending 3 years with them being the only children at home. It was such a nice shared time.
Special also was to see Greg showing his Dad, on his laptop, his latest patent design for Cat. Yes, we have brainiacs and an abundance of creativity souls in our mix. Life is so rich with so much variety between children, spouses and grandchildren.
Who wouldn't love to see ALL their grandchildren laughing, talking and playing hard as cousin bonds are strengthened? I soaked it up! They love so purely.
In two years we will again have time we share as a family unit at McCall. We will all be two years older and while we will do the same types of things, we will not be the same people we were this time around.
This year...
We had the place. We had the plan. We worked the plan. We had the desire. Our children had the desire. We all showed up. We all fully participated. We each had pure unconditional love for each other and thereby embraced each other without judgement. Word wars did not exist! We were living the Plan of Happiness. We experienced the joy of pure sociality. Truly...it was heaven on earth for a solid week!!! Sigh.
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And that same sociality which exists among us here will exist among us there, only it will be coupled with eternal glory....
Section 130:2 (see footnote 2a)
so·ci·al·i·ty
[soh-shee-al-i-tee]
noun
2.
the action on the part of individuals of associating together in communities.
3.
l]
so·cial
[soh-shuhl]
adjective
1.
pertaining to, devoted to, or characterized by friendly companionship or relations.
2.
seeking or enjoying the companionship of others; friendly; sociable; gregarious.
3.
living or disposed to live in companionship with others or in a community, rather than in isolation.
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World English Dictionary
ripple effect
| |
— n
| |
the repercussions of an event or situation
experienced far beyond its immediate location
| |
The ripple effect of 2 pebbles thrown into the water, producing 5 ripple rings going out and coming back to the original source with even greater power than the original 2 pebbles. That is our family!
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