Visiting with family

November traditionally brings families together, whether for Thanksgiving, or in my case, my husband's birthday. This year was special because to help celebrate my husband's birthday my brother in-law from Oregon flew down to celebrate with us.

We had a big family gathering at our house and altogether there were 19 of us for dinner. Here's Richard (second from left) with his brother Dave, mom Kathy, sister Sherree and brother Jay.

With the recent election having just passed, I told my husband to please make politics off limits at his birthday dinner. Our family was pretty much split down the middle with half for McCain and half for Obama. We pretty much canceled each other's votes out.

My husband agreed to the ban on both politics and religion at dinner. I was relieved, but then what do we talk about? I suggested talking about our childhood memories. L.O.L. I wish I'd had a video camera on because my memory is so terrible and everyone wanted in on the action. No lack of lively conversation, that's for sure. It was so lively in fact that I completely forgot to take photos, but my daughter did.

Anyway, my brother in-law who flew such a long distance to be with us was scheduled to leave via the Fresno airport, so I volunteered to drive him to Fresno for his departure. I have family that live in Fresno and thought it the perfect opportunity to reconnect. To my delight my cousin Jill was available and said my Uncle would like to come to lunch and bring his new wife Susan.

It was such a pleasure to meet Uncle Dick's lovely wife Susan and to see him happy. My cousin Robin also wanted to join us and she brought her daughter Brook and we enjoyed a lovely Mexican lunch. My cousin Jill surprised me with a dvd of home movies when I was a little girl. There's just such comfort in connecting with people that have watched you grow up and are still excited to see you every time you visit.

Here I am, on the right, with my cousin Robin and her daughter Brook.