Making Memories

We hosted the Memorial Day barbecue today. Remarkably, everything came together, as it does for every party. My mother-in-law says I should take "before" and "after" pictures before each event, to impress my readers with the amazing transformation of my home.

My young nephew stayed at our house last night, and had an outstanding visit. His two sisters, including his twin, were sick at home, so he got to come for his first solo sleepover. He was in heaven, because as you know, we are very penii-oriented here. This afternoon, he told us he was never going back.

At some point last evening, M.I.L. checked in on Four, Five, and Nephew. They were all stark naked in the bedroom, pretending to be wild animals. We have experience with this behaviour. When Two was young, probably around age five, he would routinely shed his clothes at family gatherings. He was pretending to be Simba, from "The Lion King," and any rational person knows lions don't wear pants. We have a picture of him at the Thanksgiving table, eating dessert naked.

In addition to the usual suspects, we had some extended family members join us today. It was fun to see the Captain's cousins, one of whom just graduated college, and is getting ready to start his own life. He seems young to be heading out into the world, although he is the same age the Captain was when he started to work for Macy's. And we were married two years later! My older boys will be this age soon. Yikes; time flies!

Thank goodness I still have several young people to raise, who spent the end of the day gathered around our new fire bowl, roasting marshmallows. When they had burned or eaten all of them, they sat down on overturned galvanized buckets, and sang songs with Uncle Geoff. It was a scene right out of "Country Living" magazine, which is the published version of my dream world.

I had decorated the all-season tree with red, white, and blue necklaces--a last-minute version of patriotic garland. The cousins got to choose their favorites, and wear them home. We gave good-bye kisses, and sent everyone up our dark driveway. The fire still glowed in the night, and it made me think of all the family members that are no longer with us--my father; our grandparents; the Captain's aunts. The recollection of them is like a warm fire that binds us together, gathered around it to share stories and laughter. Today, I felt like we were honoring them, by coming together to create new memories.

Is there someone special you are remembering today?