NOW

My feelings - my family is THIS grand! THIS IS A GRAPHIC OF THE FAMOUS UFIZZI GALLERY PAINTING FOR QUEEN CHARLOTTE OF ENGLAND BY FAMOUS PAINTER JOHANN ZOFFANY - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribuna_of_the_Uffizi
This page lets you open it large and cursor for rollover explanations of the rich individual elements in the composition.

Growing up in Norman Rockwell Great American family - Mother one of eleven and Father one of nine, it could be merry mayhem at times, but even tragedies were handled with care and love and uninterrupted moral support.

What good work and fun and beauty and social and romance and adventures with siblings and cousins, as well as friends in those days! Gramps had running pine and we’d go allllll day , gathering and feasting and braiding them into the classic garlands that literally “Decked the Halls” One uncle kept creatures and so on Easter morning, live easter bunnies hid among the eggs for the Easter Egg Hunt and their own hutch to keep them till they they were ready for the garden.

Then it was the 60s. Many of the older ones were grown and out to their own grownup lives, and many of us not even living near one another, any longer. For awhile we could gather at holidays and at least show the caring in Christmas cards and phone calls and visits, when it worked. But then our elders aged, our children were empty-nesting and death and relationship changes created more distance than is good.

So now the forty aunts and uncles have all passed away and that leaves we forty children , plus our own respective families, children, grandchildren and great grands born, or soon to be.

This is a Golden Window for reconnecting with our roots and refreshing old friendships while making new ones for our later life. My project this year is to sell this idea to my cousins - if I win over one or two and they win over one or two……. What a nice thing to do and to have!


Wish me luck!