The weekend was our annual sibling retreat held at Pine View Retreat in Juniata County. My oldest brother John and my youngest sister Linda and her husband couldn't be with us and we certainly missed them.
Friday evening always begins with dinner at Bread of Life Restaurant in McAlisterville. It's an annual tradition that we look forward to each year. The weekend is filled with lots of laughter, good conversation, telling of family stories, too much food, a little friendly competion with a couple of games, and time to reconnect as siblings.
This year Janet and I decided we would introduce the sisters and sisters-in-law to our favorite hobby of making cards. Janet and I each prepared two cards that we would make with the ladies. We had so much fun and the ladies enjoyed the craft time.
While we were busy crafting the "boys" were busy chatting and taking pictures for us. I think a few of them may have even had a little nap as well. A wide range of topics is discussed and i am pretty sure that each year they try to solve all the world's problems!
Another favorite pasttime for some of the family is putting together a puzzle or two. Because of the craft, only one got finished this year and I forgot to take a picture of the finished puzzles.
After dinner on Saturday night we played a game. This time we were playing "Scum" which became quite lively as the evening wore on.
At this point in the game the three brothers were on top with Ken as President and Jim as Vice President and Bob next. It was the only time all evening that the three of them were next to each other. And of course every round changes so that didn't last long.
Sunday morning after breakfast we gather for worship and a time of devotions. After Janet led us in singing a few songs, Jim and Donna led in our devotional time. We ended our time together with sharing prayer requests and praying together. It is such a special time of remembering the spiritual heritage instilled in us by our parents. After our morning worship time Ken and Arlene had to leave - their great grandson was celebrating his first birthday party and they wanted to be a part of that.
Another tradition is the yearly competition of dominoes. We play a version called "Do you love your neighbor?" which is a team competition so we play the boys against the girls. More often than not the boys win. I think there was only one previous year in the ten or so years that we have been doing this that the girls won. So of course we were doubly excited to beat them this year.
But they are good sports - here they are "high-fiving" themselves on their loss! We had uneven teams this year, so Joyce played a hand for the girls and one for the boys. Needless to say she both won and lost the game!
It was a great weekend which will linger in our memories.
1 comment:
Aren't we so BLESSED to have good relationships with our siblings after all these years? This looks like such a wonderful time.
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