How many of us find ourselves dreading family reunions? I've never really dreaded a family reunion, it's just sometimes it's hard to make the long trip. I have one every year in NC that I rarely get to now that we live in NW Arkansas. The drive is just so long and it's so expensive to fly that we usually have to pass on it (as much as I hate it). I haven't attended the one we have in Memphis, TN (or had been in Mississippi in the past) since Chad was with us last right before he left for boot camp, but we did go this past weekend. It's a bit easier to attend this one as it's only 5 1/2 hours away versus close to 18 hours away. We took Friday off and took our time getting there and helped set up on Friday night for Saturday's actual reunion. We had a really good time. We probably had 56 or so people there and we had lots of our family missing. One thing my aunt Pam suggested this year was a memory table. I love that idea! We had framed pictures of our loved ones that have left this earth so we could feel like they were still here with us in a way. We had pictures of my great-grandmother, grandmother, granddaddy, my aunt Pam's son, Dee, my aunt Bettye's son, Roderick, my sister's daughter, Jessica, and my son, Chad's pictures all on the table and included some brochures for Wings for Our Troops in case there were family members that hadn't heard about our foundation yet
http://www.wingsforourtroops.com/. Then we had another table that had pictures from way back of all different family members from all sorts of family get togethers. It was great to relive some of those memories together. My cousin Bobby and Gail found an old VHS (yes for you babies out there, that's the tapes we used before DVDs were invented)... that had our grandmother narrating the slide show of pictures. It literally took my breath away when I first heard her voice again (I've so longed to hear her voice so many times) and then joy immediately came over me. Seeing all the old pictures and seeing happy memories with our loved ones that have gone on to be with the Lord just brought a smile and a tear to my eye.
One this we've learned over the years with family is we are not guaranteed tomorrow and with that being said make sure you enjoy as much of your family as you possibly can. If you can at all attend the next family reunion do your best to do so. I know I will try harder to make the NC family reunion next time and it's my hope I will be able to do that.
I will share a few pictures with you from our family reunion. I can't share them all, because I took over 120 pictures (I know, but every shot looked like a Kodak moment)... :)
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| Family catching up |
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| Telling stories |
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| Daddy is always kissing someone. This was uncle Paul's turn |
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| Something was super funny.... |
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| Daddy's clan |
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| Aunt Ann's clan |
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| Uncle Phil's clan |
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| Uncle Skippy's clan |
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| The Fabulous Five! |
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| Me and Amy |
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| Aunt Bettye and Uncle Phil |
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| Most of aunt Bettye's clan (I missed their family shot somehow) :( |
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| Bobby & Daddy wanted a do-over so they could suck in... LOL |
We haven't really had a family reunion since my grandparents passed away. It has become apparent to me over the years that they really were the glue that kept it all together. But when we did, our pictures looked a lot like that! I'm so glad it was great time. And I LOVE the idea of a memory table! As we get older, we lose more of our family but it's important to raise the little ones up being aware of who their family is, even if they are no longer with us.
ReplyDeleteAlso..um...there is someone in your family who is not aware of Wings for Our Troops??? Do I need to go on some sort of marketing campaign? ;)