I've always loved family reunions. Something about knowing that all these people were family always gave me a marvelous feeling of connectedness, even when I was at that teen-age time of rebelliosness. I was lucky that there were a bunch of us cousins at about the same age, so that as my interests changed, I could always find someone to talk to.
Through the years, as the venerable elders passed on, we sort of lost that closeness and didn't have our annual reunions for many years. A few years back, we started an email newsletter. There are about 30 addresses on the list and sometime during the week, an average of 7 to 10 of them send in a note. Each Sunday morning, I compile them into one email, including any pictures they want to send along, and send it out to everyone.
We share the big news, births, family crises, unfortunate losses, and the funny thing your grandkid said last week, but we also share the small gossipy things that you tell your next door neighbor. This has brought us back together as a family and our annual reunions are now going strong again. We met last weekend at an amazing house full of love in Tennessee and shared a whole weekend of fun. There were lots of kids again, and they had a ball in two small wading pools out in the driveway, staying wet to beat the heat. Us older ones stayed mostly inside to swap stories and snuggle the babies. What a great time. I feel so lucky to be a part of such a marvelous family. The following pictures are of the oldest, youngest, kids in the pool, all the little girls and all the little boys. It was a great time.
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