What joy. We had a whole lot of relatives to our house tonight for a wiener roast. My whole lifetime is filled with wiener roasts at my Aunt Louie's or Grandma B's farms. But tonight we hosted our very first (of many I hope)! It makes for simple menu planning and there is no hot dog better than a skin on dog cooked on a stick over the fire. My Uncle Don is so prepared he has a battery-operated rotating stick for perfectly even marshmallows and hot dogs. He commented that his nephew got it for him and he thought it was a joke, but as it turns out this rotating roasting stick really works well.
The family gathering was to celebrate my cousins Richard and Karen and their kids who are in Minnesota for a week of vacation. The time together with everyone was awesome and left me with a heavy ache in my heart, missing my Aunt Jan and my Grandma B so, so much. The night was lovely and fun and it was just so wonderful to all be together, but the ache feels just as deep and true as those good feelings. Those two would have loved tonight. Everyone played hard, ate good food and reconnected. It was the best.
These two were particularly wonderful. Ivar and Kevin are kindred spirits. Kevin is four years older than Ivar and lives in Seattle, but the two just seem to click. You might remember the two of them from three years ago (the last time they saw each other) when Kevin taught Ivar "Soooo big!" and then signed them up for the talent show at our family reunion:
Well they've still go it. They played up in Ivar's room for much of the night. When I went up to take their picture I said, "Kevin, go by Ivar and his trains and I'll take your picture." And the two of them were so appalled by the idea of a staged shot. Kevin said, "but I'm actually not playing trains." And Ivar added, "mom, he's playing over there and I'm over here." It was as if they were in total agreement that a staged picture would be disingenuous. So instead I had to catch them in action which wasn't hard because they were together all night long.
It was pure joy to be all together. Relatives are the best. It left me ready to plan a big family reunion with the whole clan. Maybe 2015...
2 comments:
Looks like a ton of fun! Family is the best!
At the camp I'm working at this summer, we just had a bunch of family reunions use the facilities and it made me want to have a family reunion too!
Plus mom was trying to tell me about some of her cousins the other day and I thought it would just be easier to follow if we had a reunion. It sounds so fun!!
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