Or 72, or 108. Either way, we had a fantastic week in the middle of August with visits by all our children and a grandchild.
How do you measure how fantastic it was? By the overflowing trash on the curb when everyone had left? By the number of times we put the dishwasher through each day? By the total absence of towels in the linen closet? By the toys strewn around the yard at any given moment? By the trips to the grocery store to replenish food (even more than once a day)? By the kitty running around the house looking for hiding places? By the lack of space on our phones from all the photos? By the eerie quiet in the house right now?
They came by planes, trains and automobiles. Joe, Leonor and Thomas were the first to arrive and spent almost a whole week. Annie came in from the west coast by way of a couple of days of work in NYC. And then Margaret and Andrew (and Dee) joined us for the week's festivities. In between, John and Marilyn stopped by for lunch one day, Timmy joined us a couple of days, and Maura, Steve and Elsie came up for a barbecue.
Many memorable moments. First of all, the reason for all the family visitors was the Collins family reunion that Mary had been working on for five or more months. Over 300 people came to the event on Richmond Pond (really a lake). We saw Boyle cousins who live up the street here who we haven't seen for years. We were not alone in meeting people we had never known. One cousin saw a professor who had been her faculty adviser for over a year, only to find out they were both Collins descendants. That so many people returned is a testament to the family story, the challenges that Mary's mother and her eight siblings faced and overcame. One cousin had done extensive family history research that showed, surprisingly, a strong French side to everyone's background, as well as links to Grover Cleveland. Swimming, good food, tug of war, mingling and a group photo rounded out the day. We dodged the rain, as luck would have it that a huge thunderstorm arrived just as everyone was supposed to leave.
It wasn't the only time were lucky with the rain. Our smaller family unit headed over to Tanglewood one evening for a Star Wars concert, where the Boston Pops played the score to the movie. Thomas was enthralled when the show started; he kept walking around our group on the lawn and pointing at the screen.
We rounded out the week with trips to King Cone, the outlets, playgrounds; with exercise to work off the abundant food - running, hiking, yoga; with board games, reading, and a few hours of paid and unpaid work scattered through the week. Did I mention food? Mary was active in the kitchen, baking muffins and a cake, Joe cooked a great meal of pasta and shellfish, and we enjoyed several barbecues.
We couldn't help but think of the times we descended on Pomfret Center, with a much larger clan and with much more chaos, in summer and winter. Those too were fun days.
In other news around the nation, we saw photos of Peter and Janet in Colorado, hiking and conferencing. Andrew and Lur have been helping Claire and Daniel move into new residences. And David and Paula, unfortunately, had to cancel their trip to Ohio and Kentucky.
Did you celebrate the 50th anniversary of Woodstock in some form? We went to a nearby park, called Look Park, where they had a day of tribute bands all playing the songs of Woodstock performers. They called it Look-stock. And, last night we went to Capitol Steps, which we remembered going to with Peter and Janet many years ago in DC. While there's no current shortage of material for their cabaret spoofs, somedays it seems like they don't even need writers (I'm thinking of course of Greenland.)
On that toe-in-the-political-waters, I'll return to our non-partisan time together this past week with hope for many more happy days ensemble.
Love from up here.
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