Together again

It's going to happen and I am so excited. Anxious. Counting the days. Planning. Preparing. Anxious. Excited. Going crazy....

My sister and her family will be visiting us in mid-July. I plan to celebrate her July 8 birthday with her when she is here (belated will be good this year)! I have also sent invites out to family members for a reunion at our house. I could really panic and stress about how much I need to do before that day arrives but it is all going to focus on us - family! Good food, good stories, trips down memory lane, lots of picture-taking. I know it will all turn out fine. My grandparents use to throw these gatherings together. Perhaps gram did stress? I am not sure, as I was young and oblivious to the task at hand.

Well, to top off my sisters visit, my brother called from Florida and said, "Hey, when is the reunion? Okay, we'll be there!" Yipee. Kids are now jumping up and down. Uncle Fred is coming.

The icing on the cake, was an email from my mom. Telling me her plans to drive up from Florida, met her brother in North Carolina, and together they'd drive to New York.

Excited. Not one bit. Completely...what? There isn't a word or string of words that capture how I feel. I cannot tell you the last time the three of us have been together with my mom. That fact tells me it has been TOO LONG! I am sure I'll have a story to tell after the visit and reunion.

For now, I count the days, I dig out old photos and I wait. Anxiously, I wait.