those were the days...

We had such good times together through the years...two families brought together by the circumstances of life...and held together with a glue called friendship. Our firstborn were six months apart in age...and our second children (two boys) were born hours apart in the same hospital. We visited in each others homes...and went camping together on several occasions.

  

How well I remember our camping trip to Lightning Lakes in the summer of 1977. We had the four sweetest little munchkins along...and hiked the trails of the Alpine Meadows.

We fed the squirrels Quaker Harvest Crunch...played '500 up'...let the kids catch frogs...and just had a wonderful time. As it turned out, both families welcomed daughters the following year...and they got along just fine. Our kids all went to school together...and the middle boys had their share of escapades!

Before long, they had all gone their separate ways. We ('the old folks' in this particular scenario) still get together for dinner...or an outing...but the paths of our grown children rarely meet. There's another whole generation of kids involved now...and spouses...and where our parties with the two families once involved 10 people...there are now 24. But why not try getting them all together for a reunion? That's exactly what we did last night. Oh what fun!

There were a few spouses that had never met...and a whole slew of kids that took only a few minutes to warm up to each other! It was one large, noisy crowd...but how nice to re-kindle old friendships and make new ones. It seems plans for a future reunion are already in the works.

It's such a fun time of the year...getting together with friends old and new and enjoying the sweet warmth of the holidays in our homes.