Family Reunion

My husband comes from a large family. Both his parents had 13 brothers and sisters, most of whom survived to adulthood. They married and had children, those children have married and now have children and even some great-grands are coming along.

The Wilkins Siblings at Reunion 1948

The Wilkins Siblings at Reunion in 1967

On the Wilkins side, my husband's father's people, there is still an annual Family Reunion held every July in Cullman, AL. When I joined the family more than 40 years ago, it alternated between there and Henry county, GA, where some of the family still remained. In those days it was a two-day event, with at least 125 in attendance. Stories of the old days were shared and the food just went on and on, country food, all homemade.

As the generations expand, attendance has dwindled. All of my father-in-law's generation  have passed now. It's my husband's first cousins and their kin who survive. Now the event only lasts a couple hours. For many, it's just too far to come for lunch--about 30 were there this year.. But for those of us who get to attend, it's fun to catch up, hear a few old stories, eat good country food, and visit. This time two of our nieces are expecting girls, one in August, one in December so the family goes on. It is good to visit family in joyous times, not just at funerals.

The meat end of the table, pork BBQ and smoked chicken, farther down home grown tomatoes picked that day, squash casserole, hash brown casserole, homemade baked beans, homemade potato salad...

One third of the offerings are dessert--go figure

Visiting

One first cousin traveled from the country of Georgia, in Eastern Europe, where he lives and works. His wife is expecting their second daughter this Fall, so there are Wilkins around the world.

We ate our fill and had some extra to take home. Our nephew was harvesting fresh corn later that afternoon and gave us some--best corn on the cob we've had in years. And a sister had picked tomatoes from her garden that day, we got a couple of those too. There are advantages to having relatives who live on farms.

It was a good day of family and food. I hope you get to visit your people like this occasionally too.

Then I got back to class samples:

Creative Log Cabin, just a start, using a fabric collection

A scrappy sample, just a start, 8 blocks thrown on the wall

My Halo Star Medallion is almost completely done, one final border to go. Then it's one to another large quilt.  These dog days of Summer are good quilting days.

Let's Quilt!

Barbara

Family Reunion Food--Oh, My!

How do you eat smart at the annual Family Reunion?  Here are what the tables looked like--all this for about 40 people:

Front of the Line

End of the Line looking back toward the chicken

Half the Desserts
 

More Desserts
 

My Plate

 

In thinking about this all week prior to the event, I decided to just take the side items first--no chicken up front.  I'm sure there are quite a few calories on this plate but it's all so good and so not the way I cook--once a year it's OK to enjoy all this yummy country food.  Notice--one piece of fried summer squash--I fry nothing in my kitchen--but one piece won't kill me.   

I did not take a picture of my dessert plate--yes, I caved for some dessert.  But it all tasted so sweet, including the blackberry cake I made, that I ate less than half what I selected and called it quits.  And later that evening, at home for dinner, I had plain tomatoes and cucumbers from my garden, a small scoop of the potato salad from the reunion and an eighth of a delicious cantaloupe we bought at a farmer's produce stand on the way home--yum!

Since the end of tax season I've lost 24 pounds, by eating healthy most of the time and walking every day.  Feeling better helps my quilting and the rest of my life too, of course.  It's a good start.

Let's Quilt!

Barbara