Family Times!

When I was growing up, we lived in Nebraska for about a year and a half, and since my folks worked, I spent most of three summers (the last one being after we'd moved back to NC) with my cousins in Kansas. I've seen a picture of the house on Maple from street view on Googlemaps, and it seems smaller than I remember it. Of course, most houses seem big when you're 10. At that time, Anna was 12, and her brothers Donnie and Daniel were 16 and 15. The guys are all grown (and married) now, and go by Don and Dan, but they'll always be Donnie and Daniel...sorry guys. Same for my cousin Johnny, who has moved on to 'John'.

I've been to the weddings of all of my cousins (except Johnny - boo hiss that I missed it), and the last time I saw the three from Kansas was when Donnie and Jessica were married, seven and a half years ago. I'd caught back up some with Anna earlier this year on email, and she'd commented a few times that she wished we could sit and talk face to face. I was contemplating a ride out to Seattle, where she now lives (what better excuse?), when I got an email from my aunt Karen, inviting anyone in the family to come to Wilmore this Thankgsiving, and mentioning that all of her kids would be there. Once I knew Anna Banana (among others) would be a mere 350 miles away, it was a no-brainer to plan a trip.

The family that was there included my aunt and uncle, Karen and Don, who are the parents of my three cousins of the Kansas fame. Another aunt and uncle, John and Wai-Ming were there, having driven up from Cumming, GA. Their son, John(ny) and his wife Robyn were there, along with their two daughters (Madeline and Sophia). Daniel and his wife Renita drove in from Lexington, and as mentioned before, Anna's two kids were there. Donnie and Jessica brought the newest addition to the Koehn side of the family with little Kru, who was all of about three weeks old. Jessica says she has to wake him up for his evening feeding, which is pretty amazing. She looked great for being such a new mom :) In addition, a co-worker of Karen, along with his family were with us for the meal, bringing the entire group to 24.

We had two turkeys (a 20 and a 24 pounder), and enough food to feed an army. We'd set up four tables with 6 settings at each, so everyone got to mingle in smaller groups. Lunch began around 2 p.m. and lingered until around 4. Even after the food was done, there was some pretty good visiting going on. I took my leetle computer and had all of my pictures on here, regaling folks with stories of my rides. I managed to get some knitting done while talking with Uncle John, and took a few candid shots while food was getting prepped and while cleaning started.

The last of it was wrapped up close to 8, when the last load of dishes were going in the dishwasher, the tables and couches were restored and Karen was running the vacuum cleaner one last time. We ferried the leftovers back to Karen's, while Daniel and Renita took the remaining turkey to their house for a gathering on Saturday. When the dust settled, it was probably after 9, and Anna and I had our chance to talk and we seized it. We talked about old stuff, about new stuff, shared struggles and blessings. Until. 2. a.m.

Hiawatha!