Family Reunion

The Engineer's Mom's side of the family has been getting together on New Year's Day for over fifty years now, so every year that the weather allows, we make the two hour trip north to get together with the rest of the faithful.

In order to be up, functioning, and out the door by 10:00 am on New Year's Day, we generally stay home on New Year's Eve, and honestly I am very happy with that! There is nothing worse than attempting to visit with extended family when all you would rather do is curl up for a nap.

The VDG reunion was long ago dubbed Great Grandma's party -- and even though she has been in her home in heaven for over two and a half years now, there is still a large turnout every year. After all, she attended it even in the year of her death -- she never missed one!! She knew every one of her grandchildren and their spouses by name. I'm not so sure about the great grands as there were 103 of them in the year of her passing at age 98, but she could tell you which family they belonged to.

It is a fun time of seeing cousins, second cousins, and hearing the news of weddings, engagements, births, and yes, even deaths.

Uncle A read us a beautiful prayer before lunch. It was so meaningful for this first day of the new year. I asked him to email it to me, so hopefully I will be able to post it soon.

After lunch it is time for family announcements and the singing of the hymn "Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow." You should hear our family sing!! It is enough to give me shivers every year.

Once lunch is done, the goodies come out and everyone chats or plays games while the children run and play. We meet in the Christian Reformed Church hall. It has lots of room for all of us.

One fun thing to note. Never in one place do I see so many brown eyed blondes -- two of which happen to be mine. Considering the Dutch blood runs thick in this family, it is pretty fun to see that the blue eyes have remained so recessive. We even have a few redheads now.