Yesterday my sisters and I got together at Dad & Mom's farm to visit. John & I stayed home for Christmas this year and hadn't had a chance to see everyone and Colleen & Brad are planning to leave for Arizona next weekend for a month, so it was a good time to connect before they left town. I really need the family touchstone - particularly this time of year is difficult for me personally. I feel so confined and isolated because of the weather.
I was concerned about the weather, so unpredictable this time of year, but it had cooperated. We had a beautiful, crisp, clear albeit cold 9 degree winter's day. Monica had already arrived and was visiting with Mom when I got there around 12:30pm. Her rutabaga vegetable beef soup (made by Denny) was already on the stove warming for the coming luncheon. After me, Renee arrived and then Colleen. Shortly after Colleen was Calista with Madeline & Lynnea, then Therese. We all brought goodies to share: a vegetable tray with dip, cranberry nut bread, cheese and crackers, barley vegetable soup, more crackers and fresh fruit and plenty of coffee and creamer. It was a feast fit for royalty to be sure.
We enjoyed our visit. We spoke of jobs, schedules, kids, church, friends and families. Dad & Mom enjoyed the visit too, we all sat around the dining room table. The only interruption was a young man who wanted to get his trailer out of Dad's storage building. Dad was telling me about Leona Hartmann who had just died the previous week. Her funeral will be Monday in St. Michael. She is a relative of ours and my classmate, Susie Haus's mother. Dad recalled fondly of the old days when the neighbors would gather in the living rooms, clear the furniture to one end of the room and create a dance area. Alec Micheau would call the dance moves and there was Evaline Lehn on the piano, Leona on the guitar, there's a fiddler and perhaps and accordion and/or harmonica too. Those stories hold an interest for me that I don't fully understand. I have nothing in my past experiences that relate to them - except the people, but I love to hear them anyway. They create a movie in my mind of all the players in period dress, including deceased members who are present and everyone takes their place and plays their part.
At about 4 or 4:30 we decided to head back home. We started putting the extra folding chairs back downstairs, closing up the dining room table, shaking and folding the table cloth. Mom was in the kitchen sending home soup with those interested and bagging up leftovers - there weren't many - the fruit, veggies and crackers were gone but I wasn't taking any of the cranberry nut bread back home with me. While all this hustle and bustle was going on, Dad was reminiscing about the old days. "There used to be so much of this noise going on in the house years ago with you 6 girls here.....now it's so quiet!" I am always surprised that he finds comfort in all the noise. He's told me that the little shouts, screams, shrieks and laughter of family get together's was the best part of the day. Especially the little kids and that he misses that. I guess it helps to explain how they survived raising a large family all these years!
We hope to be visiting with Colleen on March 19th, when Therese will be advising her on decorating a few rooms in their home. Colleen & Brad are refinishing some rooms and there's always a concern for balance and color. That will be a fun get-together too.
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