May 17

The family reunion is in the books.  The reunion commenced with my mother arriving on Wednesday at noon.  First order of business was to bake a batch of buns.  On Thursday, she baked two batches of buns...96 buns in total...89 years old...no problem.  On Thursday evening, my youngest sister from Fort Lauderdale, Twyla, arrived.  She hasn't been back to Canada in 17 years.  My brother Vince and his wife, Loretta arrived on Friday morning.  We made a Costco run because we had to feed about 20 people for supper.  My brother, Wayne, and sister ,Paulette, arrived on Friday evening then a whole host of nieces, cousins, aunts and uncles started to arrive.  Because of the cool weather, my garage was transformed into a dining and party room.  After a barbecue supper, we had a sing song in the garage after a ukulele lesson, of course.  Nearly 20 people stayed at my house on Friday and Saturday evening.  On Saturday, there were 54 relatives assembled.  Thank you, Lord, for providing a mostly sunny afternoon on Saturday. People visited in the house or on the deck.  Many people played bocce on the back lawn.  We took over 400 pictures.  I have looked at the pictures several times since the weekend.  The pictures captured the reason why we had a family reunion in the first place.  The pictures captured smiling faces, children on grandma's knee, hugs, laughter, tomfoolery, singing, playing, conversation, joy, joking, heckling, lots of love, families united, cousins connecting, reminiscing, remembering, and most importantly, my mom taking it all in.  She was so happy she cried.  Saturday evening, over 50 people enjoyed beef on a bun(buns compliments of Mom), salads, and a variety of desserts.  Uncle Clarence and I led a sing song after another ukulele lesson.  Hearing Uncle Clarence sing the familiar old songs brought back wonderful memories of the many times over the years that our family has gathered for sing songs.  Most people departed on Sunday morning.  Many people pitched in to get my house back in order.  The food was stored, sheets/towels were washed, beds were made, floors were vacuumed, and rentals returned.  Everyone left with grateful hearts and fond memories of the weekend that was.