My Grandma's Table

Shortly before Christmas, I received a wonderful gift.  My Grandma's kitchen table.  Like so many kitchen tables, it is so much more than just a table.  It's a table full of memories.  To me it will always represent the love of home.  You only had to walk a few steps into my grandma's home to know it was a house full of love.  You could see the love of family.  The love of funny little things.  The love of making your home nice, a place where people want to be.  

Her refrigerator always had pictures of the family.  She had a timeout doll placed in the corner of the kitchen, just because it made her laugh every time she saw it.  And the table, visible within the first couple steps of entering the house, the table now in my home, was always decorated for the season or the holiday (and the far corner was always scattered with cards and pictures ready to go in the scrapbook she was working on).  

She loved to decorate this table.  Always thrilled to show me the new item she had purchased and ready to tell me where she bought it from and how good a deal she received.  It was so much more than simple decoration thought.  It was filled with her love to do something nice in her home.  To make it warm and welcoming.  To make it special for all who entered.  Not just special, but nice.  My grandma appreciated the nice things in life, but not in a way that was covetous or prideful.  She just wanted things to be done nicely and was always so kind to make sure to share those things with me.

More than decorating your home and making it nice though, this table represents the love of family.  When I think about it, I hear my cousins laughing, the aunts and uncles discussing lively and loudly whatever current event was taking place.  I see smiles all around.  I feel the coziness that comes from family being close.  I remember the lunches I ate with Grandma on my trips back into town.  I can picture her having little conversations with Thomas and just smiling a smile that showed absolute joy as she sat there and just looked at my babies.

A kitchen table, this kitchen table will remind me always of the very essence the Lord filled my Grandma's character with.  She showed me that my love for the Lord and His Word needs to flow out of me in a way that spills all over my family.  She was just simply content with the life (the wonderful and the horrible things that filled it) she was given.  She knew it was all a gift from God and she allowed Him to fill it, she chose to fill it through Him with love.

I only hope my grandchildren can someday look at my silly old kitchen table and think the very same things.  That God would help me to be the mom and the grandma that just simply loves her family through and through.

My first opportunity to begin this came this year on Christmas Eve.  My sister ironed my new tablecloth, a gift from a friend with a pattern similar to the Spode plates I know my Grandma liked, I placed her Christmas salt and pepper shakers (empty!!) on the table, pulled out her gold silverware, the glass bowl in the top left was hers, the place mates she gave me years ago and delicately placed it all on the table with her love in my heart!

My dad and my sister prepared the meal with fun, joy and love (as they are much better cooks than I) and we sat down as a family to enjoy the fun!

I'd like to think that my Grandma would be pleased to have seen this and even more pleased to have been there.  She would have been tickled pink to know all her things she had passed to me were being used.  I can see her now, in her famous expression, a tilt of the head, saying, "oh, well, oh my..."

I love you, Grandma!!

Sweet Moments on a Hard Day

I have a big post running through my brain that I just can't seem to post.  My sweet beautiful Grandma went to glory just a short 4 weeks ago.  It was the most difficult joyful situation I've ever been through.  I have so much about that week, her service and her that I want to share and just get down here for memories sake, but today is not that time.  soon.

In the meantime, here are some pictures that I love from those days:

The boys looked so cute and so big in their dressy clothes, I just had to get a picture.  They were more than happy to climb all over the rocks for me to get a few.

We had a luncheon and managed to get all the little ones in close for a picture!  There are 24 great grandkids (missing a few here), all under 9.  There are such a fun group of kiddos.  The babysitters that watched over them for the service were impressed with our sweet little group! : )

There are also 5 more on the way!  So we couldn't miss out on the photo op here.  L to R: My sister, due in Feb, Oldest cousin, Monique due in Feb, Nicole, due in Feb., Cyrena due in April, Molly, due in May.  All, but Audra, with their 3rd child.  Grandma knew all were coming and could tell you their correct due dates just the week before.

My Thomas and his buddy, Timmy.  Always have such fun together!

This day was such a tribute to the love shown and given by Grandma.  A testimony to the love that the Holy Spirit filled her with and that grew out her love for the Lord!  Such a beautiful blessing!!

Reeder Family Extravaganza

Every year since before I was born, there has been a Reeder Family Christmas Eve celebration. Usually we would get together at Grandma & Grandpa's home and then rotate between all the Aunts & Uncles. Everyone came. Everyone when I was little was Grandpa & Grandma, the 4 siblings and their spouses and the grandkids, totaling 12. Well, the last couple of years we've usually gotten together, but occasionally chunks of the family were missing. About 4 years ago we switched to a weekend before or after Christmas, started bringing in catered food with the grandkids bringing the snacks. Then, there was talking of not doing it anymore. Maybe we'd get together in the summer at a park. There are after all almost 50 of us now. 11 of the 12 cousins are married, the last one will be in 2010. There are 21 great grandkids with 2 more on the way.

Well, not getting together lasted one year. Auntie Mary called us all together again this year and what a blast it was. Only 2 cousins and their families were missing.

My Aunt and Uncle are wonderful, maybe a little crazy, because all of us were there at one time with all those kids under 7 running through the house. Huge blessing on them for having us all in with smiles on their faces and wonderful food.

Thankfully it was a sunny, December, California day. We filled the backyard, the family room, the kitchen and even the living room and the front yard for parts of it. Their were babies sleeping in the different rooms and someone always in the bathrooms. It was a great Christmas get together. Below are pictures of the groups.

Grandma with all her grandkids and their spouses.

The second half of the grandkid picture! We don't all fit in one anymore! The couple in the bright blue and orange are getting married this year!! Congrats!!

Here are most of the great grandkids. One little guy was sleeping and this took about 10 minutes from start to finish. Remember, they are all under 7, so they don't all stay put at the same time. This process was entertainment in and of it self!
I hope there will be many more Reeder Family Extravaganza's in the years to come. We just might have to move to a park and switch to the summer, but we'll all find our way back together.

What a tribute this is to the blessings of God!! Also, to my grandparents, how they raised their children and their love for each and everyone of us. It is Grandma's love that brings us so close together!