My Great-Grandma Waterman used to take "minutes" at every family reunion. She died in 1974, but those immortal words "...and a good time was had by all" ended every entry. I used to hate going to family reunions and thus thought that those words were surely some cliche' that she HAD to write; surely not ALL had a good time, right?
Well, I know that I'm getting old, but my thinking has changed. I think that it is indeed possible to have a good time at a reunion. Today, we went to a reunion for Chuck's side of the family. We just found out about these reunions 3 years ago, and every time we go we have a good time. It's been really neat to witness the true "reunion" of this family! When we went in 2003, it was the first time that Chuck had seen any of that family in about 25 years. In April we went to a wedding in another cousin's family and he saw 6 more cousins for the first time in 30 years. I am helping to plan a reunion next year with hopes that all 40 or so cousins will be able to come.
What a great time that will be!
I've also been busy organizing the mountians of pictures that I have. (20 full albums so far...) This has made me think of another reunion that I'm looking forward to. I can't wait to see my grandpas, Uncle Howdy and Uncle John again in heaven. It's been 24 years since Grandpa Farrand died- so much has happened since then that I'd love to talk with him about. Grandpa Aldrich has been gone 11 years- he never got to meet Rachel and I can't wait to hear what he thinks about her. Uncle Howdy died 2 years ago and Uncle John 5 years ago. It seems like yesterday that I got those phone calls.....I miss both of them terribly, even more so during "reunion season"!
Our ultimate family reunion with our Father in heaven will be one for the books! (I wonder if I can get family pictures there too?)