Sunday Meditation: Making Memories

A little pewter nativity set bought at Santa's Secret shop at St. Louis School in Alexandria
finds a permanent home in a shell collected during a beach vacation.

I love Sunday. It generally starts with getting ready and attending 8:00 a.m. Mass. We come home, make coffee, and set the table for brunch. Sometimes it's just our daughter and her family. More often there are other friends and family: my sister-in-law and, occasionally, my nephew, a friend and her young daughter who has become like an adopted grandchild and loves to play with my daughter's girls. Sometimes we get extra guests at the last minute. There is always room and plenty of food!

Making Memories: A Grandma's Pleasure

We love visiting our children and grandchildren. One of the things I like best is thinking about making memories for the children. On our latest visit to our son in Texas and his family we decided to celebrate their new home, (They moved in July.), with a housewarming party.

Tonight was the big night. I made my son's favorite dinner, also a favorite of the kids, parmesan chicken made with a white wine sauce instead of the traditional tomato-based sauce and served with alfredo noodles. Salad, warm bread, apple sauce, and cottage cheese accompanied the dinner. See more here.

Of Bees and Grandchildren: Taking Time Out to Make Memories

Bee babies, capped and uncapped

I'm taking a break from responding to nasty anonymous comments (I've been getting them on my post about Reagan. Goodness, can't we say something kind about someone unless he/she is a saint?)

Instead I'm focusing on something I really love that fills me with joy: beekeeping! We did our first Spring inspection this afternoon and our hives look wonderful. You can see the details here. There is something soothing about watching and caring for these amazing little creatures. Sometimes problems arise that make it challenging and frustrating, but it is always fascinating. They are such an example of working for the good of the "family." Everybody has a job and they go about it from dawn til dusk. No wonder we have the expression, "busy little bees."

Back to (Quiet) Normal -- After a Memory-Making Week

As you may have noticed by my posts today, all our grandchildren have gone home and we are back to our (too) quiet normal. We waved off our Pittsburgh family early this afternoon. This evening I wanted to post the photos of our princess (and little prince) tea party. If you'd like to see them visit Camp Kreitzer. 

Family times are sacred times. We pray together and play together, and, as parents and grandparents, we create memories. Hopefully they are happy ones. When I read about children who are abused and neglected I want even more to embrace my grandchildren and create for them and for my children and their spouses joyful times with family.

We moved around so much when I was a child and our relatives lived so far away that I had almost no relationship with any of my cousins or my grandparents. I don't want that to be the case for our grandchildren. And so, when they visit Camp Kreitzer, we consider it memory-making time. I think this summer we will buy some extra bee veils so the next time our grandchildren visit we can give them the memory of "playing" with the bees.

And speaking of memories, our oldest (We call her "Julie" after the Love Boat activity director because she always thinks of great activities during family gatherings.) on Easter separated us all into groups (adults and children mixed) and we had to come up with questions to ask our partners and then report back. Some shared what they like best about Camp Kreitzer, some asked what super power you'd choose if you could. The questions and answers were serious, funny, and imaginative and we all learned a little more about each other. It was great fun! Thanks, Alice.

And after we were done we all said night prayers together with everyone articulating what they were thankful for. I am certainly thankful for our five children, their spouses and our 23 grandchildren living and the six little angels in heaven. God has certainly richly fulfilled the blessing of the marriage covenant that we might see our children and our children's children. Thank you, Lord.

What memories are you making with your children or grandchildren this week?

Making Memories and Giving Thanks

Four of our five children and their families will be joining us for Thanksgiving. Three will be staying with us. That means six adults and thirteen children sleeping over for several days and ten adults and fifteen children for Thanksgiving dinner. Whew! But what a joyful anticipation! As a Catholic grandma I have two goals -- creating memories and reminding everybody Who needs to be thanked for all the blessings we enjoy.

Since out-of-towners are arriving on Tuesday and Wednesday, I'm hoping for good weather so we can have a bonfire Wednesday night with hot dogs, s'mores, and a rosary of thanksgiving (or at least a few decades). Wednesday the men plan to play golf and I'm searching for craft ideas for the children. I think a thanksgiving jar would be great but when do we read the entries? Perhaps Thanksgiving night as a bedtime prayer activity. How I wish we could all sit around the same table together for the feast, but even with all the leaves in the table our max squeeze is 16 which leaves another eight (and a high chair) in the mix. So we will be in two rooms. The kids will love having their own table and I expect the adults won't mind having some grown-up conversation -- one more thing for which to be thankful. We are so blessed to have a house big enough to host everyone, something we deliberately thought about when we retired to the country and