Family - how I love thee!

I love our time together as a family. As our kids grow up and move out and away . . .those times become less and less. When we are all together is special time. This first picture isn't very "good" but it shows grandmother's ginormous (sp?) sofa and how we all tend to gather in that room. At times, the sofa and every chair has a body and there are usually two or three sprawled out in the floor. When you spread a few boys (men!!) who are six feet tall or taller over a floor . . .they take up a lot of space.  Grandmother's den adjoins her kitchen so it is a nice way for us all to be together while some folks are cooking . . .without crowding the cook.

For the last several years, we've been trying to get pictures of all of us together . .. anytime we are all together.  I don't mean this to sound morbid (and I'm not thinking morbid thoughts) but I've come to realize that we really don't know what tomorrow might bring.  We need to celebrate life!!!  By the time that I was 25 (like Glenn and Laura) . . .both my parents were dead.  So here we all are . . .the back row -- Mark, Lisa (me!) and Susie -- row in front of us -- Bob (married to Susie) - Grandmother in the blue, Alice and George (don't you just love that hat?  Evidently some of the other men in their supper club have one . . .. ) -- front and center - B - i - double L (that is what Mark calls him - Bill).  Look at all those stockings hanging on that fireplace.

Here is the next generation -- Lauren and Glenn standing on the back and then Laura and Grace sitting in the chair.  Ben is on the left (he is studying at Vanderbilt and will begin applying to medical school soon!!) and Paul is in the middle (he is in law school at the University of Richmond) and Thomas is on the right -- he is in high school still. 

We are family - we love each other - we irritate each other - we come together to celebrate!!