This weekend is one of my two favorite ones on the year. My very favorite weekend is the first one in October. These are the times when my faith celebrates its general conference, when folks all over the planet listen on TV and Satellite and streaming computers as quiet, intelligent, good men from all walks of life give messages of hope–counsel about how to be better, kinder, stronger people. They inevitably remind us of our power we have to relieve suffering, sorrow and want.
And while I listen, I make stuff. Church in my pajamas, making happy things.
But this year was particularly swell: all of my kids (but one—the missing M) came to my house for a big family dinner. Even M’s incipient wife came to play.
Another gray day, so I’ll just apologize now for the low-light blur on everything. Here is the table, groaning under the weight of the first almost whole family dinner in months. Gin’s fam on the left side.
Cam’s on the right.
This is what it looked like outside.
Sandy and Andy meeting for the first time. He’s still very little, even though he’s huge. She’s crawling – and already somebody to reckon with.
Ah – the Chaz.
Our Laura comes to hang with us, bringing presents for Chaz
and a willing heart. Playing cars with the boys.
What I love best about these things is the mixing up of sets. Uncle and Sand: happy together.
I can’t get enough of them.
Seriously. I can’t.
Training babies is a lot like training puppies.
What is so valuable about Laura: we need someone grounded. Someone serious and thoughtful to balance out the rest of us crazies.
See how her future nephew learns by watching her?
Ginna is holding something I found in my Easter hunting, a small set of Matching Cards I made when she was just a little, little person. I found them in a jewelry box – one of several small, carved boxes I keep on my dresser, rarely opened. They are pictures I drew and colored, then sealed up in sticky shelf paper. Now yellow. Maybe yellow when I started. But when I brought them out, all the children had a gasp of memory.
G, summoning M.
More sets, mixing.
Having a good time there, Dr. H?
So, I have four daughters now. And G is in the background, holding Murphy in his two hands. We are, evidently, Facetiming M into the celebration. And this very evening, by the way, is what this room was born for.
Chaz with nephews two and three.
Cousins. So COOL. I am the mistress of cousins.
Daughters, probably discussing babies and sleep. Or babies sans sleep. Or maybe how to handle girls’ camp. Or weight. Or the fate of the universe. Something.
I love this shot because I just love seeing the girls lost in conversation. I am the observer here. I have set the stage, created the home-place; I have given them all my treasures. These four daughters – two born into the family, two chosen to complete it – they are now the vibrant heart of this family. How strange to be the grand-mother when I have spent the last thirty some odd years living the family heart land.
It’s up to them – the love and cooperation. The camaraderie, the friendship. When, some day, I am gone – they will be the family. Look around at your own kids. Before you know it, getting them together in the same room will be a major event. And they will bring others with them, some large, some tiny. So many people who will belong to you, but have lives too big to keep them at your house for long.
They are gone now. All gone to their regular lives. Gin and fam flown back home, getting ready to move into their real house. Cam and L, busy with work and kid. Chaz having the deep delight of every day’s captive audience and Laura back to school and work.
It’s quiet around here. A little cleaner. And our life is back to being our own.
But I still can’t find the Easter eggs.
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