The picture that almost wasn't ... Week of Celebrations, Part 3

Saturday was the one day of the weekend when the entire family would be together and my Mom really wanted to get a family picture taken - one of her gifts to daddy. Our only window of time was at 10am (Mom was subbing for someone at the temple and needed to leave at 11 and wouldn't be home until 4pm). To add to the impossibleness of this task, the weather forecast for the day called for 100% chance of rain all-day-long! Mom had suggested a great park near their house and Friday GR and I found a good spot for the picture there.



My parents decided to use this picture as their New Years picture with the story of it's miraculous occurrence as their letter. I'm going to share a slightly edited version of my Dad's write up and hopefully this won't ruin the surprise for any extended family that reads this blog ... if you haven't gotten their new years letter, stop reading and wait till your envelope arrives, OR promise to act just as excited and read every word like you would have if I hadn't spoiled the surprise.

"This picture is worth a thousand words, but a few hundred will have to suffice. It was taken Saturday morning, December 27, 2008, and the forecast indicated a 100% chance of rain. Although threatening, it wasn’t raining yet, so we went ahead with our plans for a 10 AM family picture at a nearby park. Then we realized we had neglected to give an exact time to our son Joe and his fiancée, Katy. (If you look closely you will see the ring on Katy’s finger—we are all looking forward to their wedding in September.) about 40 minutes away, but, as you see (at the far right) they made it!

We really wanted a picture of all of us, since our daughter Barbara (above left from Katy) has plans to serve as a missionary and would thus be unavailable for the next year and a half. She has been living in the St. Louis area for the last year and recently got a job that could put her psychology degree to work at a local University.

While waiting for Joe and Katy, the grandchildren had a good time in the playground until Stella got a really bad bump on her forehead. Through the excellent parenting skills of her father she was coaxed to join the picture. Matthew and our daughter Mary Ann, Stella (upper left corner—note the bandage on Stella’s forehead) along with the youngest of their family, Danielle (next to Stella but looking away from her), have a house about 25 minutes from us—a lot closer than their former home in Beirut, Lebanon.

We also needed to get the picture taken because our daughter Suzanne (sitting left of Barb) needed to go back home that evening. Among her duties working for a Mid Missouri Health Care Organization is driving the 44-foot long mammography van for its visits throughout central Missouri.

We were also happy to have Kathleen and family make the trip from Kansas, to be with us for Christmas. GR (far left in front of Matthew) was the photographer who—with tripod and timer—got the shot ready to step into. He and our daughter Kathleen (between Suz and Katy), now have five children: Rebecca, Emily, Sam (in a row from Suz to Stella), Alex (on Suz’s lap) and baby Anna (guess where she is!).

Art and Mary Sue are the ones left over in the picture, and if we look happy, we really are. We are thankful for the blessing of good children, fine sons-in-law, a lovely future daughter-in-law, and grandchildren, who all bring happiness into our lives. We are reminded that heaven is but an extension of the ideal home, and are grateful for the Redeemer of all, whose birth we celebrated at Christmas."

After the picture was taken ... we promised everyone as the rain drops started to fall, that we would only take two shots, so smile and look at the camera, cause the least offensive of the two would definitely get used ... we headed home for sandwiches and a little rest time before some of the children and a few of the adults went to see the movie The Tale of Despereaux. I enjoyed the movie, but the film is much darker and scarier than portrayed in the book. I have really come to love Kate DeCamilo's style of writing. I listened to Tale of Despereaux back in September and loved it. On the way to St. Louis we listened to another one of her stories (The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane) which is equally as charming and just as full of life lessons as Despereaux.

Following the movie the entire family met at a deluxe burger restaurant (a birthday dinner of sorts for my Dad) before everyone had to go their separate ways for the evening.