Half Seventeen Cottage - A place for family to stay connected.

The Richardson Family Reunion 2006 held this past Sunday in Rutherford was, as always, a wonderful time. Ed and Pauline Richardson, Pat Carruthers and Marj Zavitz in particular work hard each year keeping this tradition going. It's the highlight of my summer having that chance to just hang out with family. And the family keeps growing - lots of new babies this year - some at the reunion and some on the way. And as Ron said, we had a very good turnout of younger folk which is a great sign for future reunions.

Ian and I really enjoyed horsing around with the kids during the games portion of the day. Examples of indoors games were guessing pennies in a jar, goodies in a jar, the weight of a watermelon and a memory game. Outdoors, we had three legged races, egg balanced on spoon races, watermelon seed spitting and the especially popular ‘pseudo cricket’ game Ian devised with the help of Brian's borrowed "pilons", a couple of tennis racquets, 2 tennis balls and a lawn chair. The kids actually asked after the meal if they could play again. Ian got a kick out of bringing an Australian tradition to a very Canadian reunion.

I have wonderful and now poignant memories of past reunions in Springbank Park so for me watching the kids enjoying the games and playing well together was a special time. As always, the meal was great - the potluck food varied and delicious and the company perfect. Each family contributing a game and types of foods for the reunion each year is part of the wonderful mix that makes each reunion unique and familiar at the same time.

Ian got some great video and pictures of this year's reunion. We'll post them asap.

posted by Anney @ 1:47 p.m.