While Mom's birthday was the next day, the big celebration was on Sunday. We began with Mass at St. James, the parish we all grew up in. The is still active and doing important pastoral and social ministry work. they have also fixed up the interior and it looks great. Mom doesn't attend every Sunday but she is still a loyal member and is known by all. My sister Mary and her husband Bob are extremely active members.
The big event was a picnic at Loose Park in the pavilion. More than sixty family members attended. All seven of my children were there along with seven of the grandchildren. All Mom's grandchildren save one were there along with our Sciolaro cousins and several of their children and grandchildren. We were all please to see our Pickett cousin, Oren, attend since we had not seen him in several years.
We had a great time with plenty of barbecue, visiting, stories, cousins meeting each for the first time, more stories, visiting with Grandma/Mommer, and more stories. Oh, and we all had an Oreo cookie since it too is celebrating its centennial this year. There were hundreds of photos just on my cameras so I have selected some for Picasa albums.
There was one side activity that is very interesting. My son Galen has gotten into using fountain pens...in a big way. He buys them on Ebay and reconditions them. Actually some of the ones he gets have never been "inked" as he says. He has done a lot of research on the history of fountain pens including the various technologies and the companies that have been involved in the manufacture of them. A couple of weeks before our Kansas City weekend, he wrote to each of his siblings...actually wrote individual letters with one of his pens. Each one was different. They all ended with the same commitment. He would bring fountain pens for each of them to Kansas City and further that if they wrote him a letter with the pen, he would answer in writing that same day. He didn't pick out a pen for each but let them select from the group he brought. The photo shows them after they made their picks.
We also re-enacted a photo of the seven taken at Meg's graduation from Cornell. Of course, none of us brought a copy of the original picture so we think we got everyone in the same position but I won't know for sure until I get home and take a look at the original.
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