Thankful for Family

Over Thanksgiving weekend my family had something extra for which to be thankful.  

Santa, General Robert E Lee, er, Dad's family has a tradition of getting together 

every other Thanksgiving for a reunion.  

This tradition was started a couple of decades ago by my grandmother, Ava Hester.

We are usually traveling elsewhere for the reunion but this year it was my turn 

to coordinate the reunion.  

That meant one thing: reunion in Huntsville!

Other than lots of time to sit, talk, and reminisce,

there was time to go through family artifacts (a suitcase of items that belonged to my grandfather).  There were some really interesting items in this suitcase.  

A big yellow school bus picked us up at the hotel so that we 

could go on a Twickenham Tour 

with my friend, and tour guide extraordinaire, Jacque Procter Reeves.

And of course there has to be a group picture.  

Unfortunately we didn't get everyone together before the light was too far gone outside 

so this was the best that we could do for a group picture.  

There were 53 of us together this weekend.  

I do believe that this is the largest group that has ever come together for our reunion.  

The only ones missing were the ones living in Osaka, Japan, Paris, France and deployed to Kuwait.  

I guess that they had a good enough excuse.  

Some years are more enjoyable than others, but I am relieved to report that I think that everyone had a very nice time.  

I know I did.  

Dad's Garden, Part 10

Dad's garden is transitioning into fall.  

The bright, vibrant greens have been replaced with dustier greens, golds, and orange.

As the tomatoes fade away the marigolds that helped keep them 

healthy over the summer have come into their glory.  

 They are easily the bright spot in the garden.  

The okra plants stand at attention but their lush, fuzzy foliage has fallen away.

 The summer veggies are being replaced with the cool weather loving plants.

Dad's leaf lettuce is delicate and vibrant green 

and surprisingly hardy.  

Dad's greens mix is wonderful.  

He plants turnip greens, mustard greens, tender greens, and kale together.  

Yummy combination.

The last planting of the lima beans is still producing but probably 

won't last the first hard frost.

The sweet potatoes have been dug and are aging on the porch.  

Just waiting for some butter and cinnamon.  

The fall garden isn't the flashiest time of the year, 

but the produce that comes out of it is warming comfort food.  

Give me a dinner with a sweet potato, greens, and a hot piece of cornbread any day!

Seriously good eating!

Teens... Gotta Love 'Em

In Milwaukee over fall break we all made a trip to one of the lovely city parks

 to take some family pictures. 

The foliage colors were amazing!

While my in-laws were arriving I got the grandkids together to snap a few pictures.

I asked them to group up and to touch at least two others in the group.

This is what I got.

So I told them that I needed to see their faces.

This is what I got.

I then told them that I needed everyone to face me.

This is what I got.

What I have is four cousins that enjoy goofing off together.

And some cute photos.

Girl Power

I love this picture of my daughter and my mother in law.

It's not perfect - there are some hair issues and the lighting isn't perfect

but I love the love in this picture.  

My MIL loves her grandchildren very much but since

Allison is her only granddaughter I think they have a special bond.

It's a girl thing.

All Tied Up

Over fall break we went to visit hub's family.  

Bruce made the mistake of falling asleep in my in-laws living room while 

Allison was working with yarn.  

Pretty soon she was reenacting a scene from Gulliver's Travels.  

Hubs can sleep through anything! 

He didn't wake up at all while he was being tied down by this very cute Lilliputian.

Picture Perfect

This Thanksgiving my dad's side of the family will be gathering for a reunion.  

One of my cousins came up with the idea of everyone scanning in their pictures and bringing in a digital version so that we can all have a complete collection of family pictures.  

I started scanning in pictures at my folk's home at Christmas.

I have been back a few times since to work on pictures 

but this is still how the dining room table looks.

This is a much bigger job than I originally anticipated.

We have been taking pictures out of frames to get them scanned in.

So many of the Polaroid pictures that were in frames have faded badly.  

We have also had new archive quality mats cut 

for the pictures that are going back in frames.

Like I said, this has turned out to be a much bigger job than I anticipated.

(If you have Polaroid pictures out where they can fade with UV light - 

scan them in and frame a scanned copy.  

Otherwise your family pictures will slowly fade away.

Really.  Do it today.  

Go ahead, I'll wait.)

This is one of the highlights of this project.  

This is a hand-tinted portrait of my mother when she was 18 years old.  

Beautiful, huh?

She still is.

Dad's Garden, Part 8

Dad's garden is about the only thing that is enjoying all of this heat 

we have been experiencing lately.

Everything is looking good.  The cooler weather veggies are now long gone.  

The heat-loving veggies are in their prime.

The muscadines are starting to blush.

The tomatoes are peaking now - they are loving all of the heat.

I mean, look at this plant.  It is loaded with fruit!

Dad has a knack with growing tomatoes.

From seed to harvesting seed for next year he has this whole routine down to a 

proven process that just doesn't fail.  

I know that one year he kept up with the poundage of tomatoes that he was taking to church - 

that year what he took exceeded 1500 pounds!  

That's a whole lot of spaghetti sauce!

Dad has staggered his lima bean plantings so that they don't all come in at once.

Red lima or green limas - they are all delicious!

Dad's fig bush is loaded up!  

When these figs actually start to ripen they are going to have a bumper crop.

Miss Jae and Grammy

My mother got the privilege of babysitting with her 

youngest two granddaughters today.

My SIL took her older daughter to see the new Harry Potter movie 

today and didn't think it was appropriate for a 3 year old and a toddler.

  

They had some good cuddling time while waiting for Jae 

to settle down and quit fighting sleep.

Just look at those rolls!  Love the rolly-polly look of babies this age.

I wish that chubby thighs was a good look on 40-somethings. 

Oh well.

*grainy pics from my iPhone.  Not sure what I am doing wrong with it.  If all else fails I guess I should read the manual.  :)

Cousins

 The following pictures are what happens when you get Bruce to help with photos.

The first photo - fine.  Kinda boring but fine.

But then Bruce started calling out a quick succession of poses.

And this is what happened.  

What you don't see is that off-camera Bruce is modeling the pose he wants for them to do.

My hubs has a silly streak that comes out at strange times.

Kinda wish now that I had snapped a pic or two or two of those sweet moves. 

Now that would have been funny.

The Northern Family

It was good to get to see the "other" grandparents and aunt.

My kids are fortunate to live in the same city as one set of their grandparents.

Getting to see the other side of the family is a treat that only happens once or twice a year.

We are hoping to get back again this year around the holidays.

Happy 235th Birthday America!

Someone I know gets very excited about family gatherings.

Especially when they involve fireworks.

Whenever my family gets together there is silliness

and a lot of laughs.

My brother's yard has lots of room for a rowdy game of horseshoes.

That's right people, horseshoes can be downright rowdy.

At least it can with my family.

Such form...

Such skill.

Poetry in motion. 

What's a family gathering without food.

So much food that to try it all might make someone very full.

Not that this happened to me.

Ha!

I also made a discovery at this party.

My mom is quite the cut-throat Croquet player.

She sent her granddaughter's ball flying!

Of course she did it to show Allison how to knock her opponent's ball. 

That's her story and she's sticking to it.

The evening ended with a very nice fireworks display.

Ben had a blast helping his uncles shoot the fireworks.

He managed to keep all of his fingers and eyebrows.

When will I ever get over being nervous about such things?

All in all, a very nice Independence Day Celebration.

Too bad it only comes around once a year.

On The Road Again

Getting ready to go to Wisconsin to visit the other side of the family. 

Nothing like some love in a ziploc or two to make the reunion a little sweeter.

Dad's Garden, Part 6

So - after church today the family and I went to my folks' home to celebrate Father's Day.

Turns out it isn't Father's Day.

Oh well, at least we weren't late.

We enjoyed lunch that included cole slaw, green beans, and squash casserole -

all made with veggies fresh out of the garden.

We might just have to celebrate Father's Day again next week, you know, when it is really Father's Day. 

The green-to-dirt ratio is shifting rapidly.

I love the way the garden looks now.

Very green and orderly.

The tomatoes are coming right along.

When these babies start ripening there are going to be lots of tomatoes to deal with.

Canned tomatoes, stewed tomatoes, sliced tomatoes, BLTs.

Mmmmm, sounds good to me!

This pretty silvery foliage belongs to the broccoli. 

I asked Dad if it was going to be able to head before the heat gets to it. 

He tells me that it is a heat-tolerant variety.

Good thing, it has been crazy hot lately.

Cute, huh?

The Grandma Parham's beans are producing now!

I love these beans.

I think these are the only green beans that I have actually craved.

The Grandmas Parham's beans start off with these cute little flowers...

And turn into these lovely magenta beans.

They turn green when you cook them, but they start off the prettiest color.

Speaking of pretty - this cabbage looks like a giant rose.

Just lovely.

Pretty darn tasty too.