Reunions...love them or not, they seem to roll around in all families. My mother's family is rather large, 7 brothers, which makes for a fairly large group of cousins, their children, in some cases their children's children and even another small generation beginning after that! Needless to say, through the years cousins moved, families extended and family, well, a lot of family literally has lost touch.
Of course we hear this and that through our own parents, but sadly we don't really know many of our cousins anymore.
My brother and I have been wanting to host a reunion with a push to get cousins in attendance for over a year, but busy schedules and logistics of where to have such an event kept it from happening.
I decided there was one day in December that I didn't already have a party, commitment, etc., :)...and we needed to schedule something. Boom - Bardin Family Reunion on the calendar!
Although busy holiday schedules wouldn't allow for all to attend, we had a great time and just a few tense moments.
Hosting with house guests proved to be quite entertaining. Let's just say my brother will need to stay elsewhere next visit! He likes to "rearrange" my things when he visits. Usually he will make a stack by my front door, but this visit he chose to put malt balls in the opening of decorative birdhouses, magnets hanging anywhere but the refrigerator, strainers on the pot rack, Santa upside down on kitchen counters...you name it, he did it.
I like to make videos, sweet, remember this videos. One problem is that I don't actually know how to do them. I always have to enlist the help of my children and usually my son.
Let's just say asking 70+ year old people to send pictures in .jpg format didn't exactly work out! He spent hours and hours scanning, cropping, pulling from funeral videos (not kidding). Needless to say, he was still putting the finishing touches on when the guests started to arrive and I was tying bows and raffia and handing them out as people left, ha. Still, the night was a lot of fun, the video was great, catching up and hopefully staying in touch was worth it all.
The night was complete with our personal photographer (thank you Tiffany). She came and took our photos. I was sending out an email early Sunday morning when shock turned to horror as I realized that the camera she took those pictures with had NO memory card! In an effort to update my photos and get Christmas cards printed I had taken it out and hadn't replaced it.
I was too exhausted to freak out so I just cried, a sad little cry. When Steve saw me he asked what was wrong, I told him and he looked more shocked than me. Probably afraid I would host again :)
Luckily he had the idea that my camera might have internal memory, and yes, praise Jesus it did! Pictures, there...all of them.
It really did all start because two people fell in love. My grandparents were amazing. My brother and I loved being with them, always. Places no longer there were favorites as kids...Red Colemans Convenience store, The Frisco (ice cream cones), The Delman Theatre, getting Avon gifts for Christmas every year (purchased from Ms. Boscoe) and my personal favorite Prince's Hamburgers. I spent many nights listening to my mother and grandmother talk while mother rolled her hair (bobbie pin style). I watched and did tricks in the den to try to get their attention (I outgrew that), but never outgrew loving and wanting to be with my grandparents.
Not only did they love each other, they loved their family, all of them and they loved Jesus more. They were a house of very limited income, but they obviously did something right because we never knew and we certainly never cared. Because they lived in faith and were faithful always, they passed down things money will never be able to buy. Love of God, morals, values, knowing right from wrong, treating others the way Jesus would, keeping what you need and giving the rest back...the good stuff. I am so thankful they were our beginning. Christmas got a little bit brighter...family matters, hold them close!
Aunts, Uncles
Aunts, Uncles, Cousins
~The Bardins~
xoxo,
~My Cup Runneth Over~
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