happy hearts

ingredients for 2 wonderful game nights with family...

*snacks

*up, ratatouille, wall-e, how to train your dragon, finding nemo, home alone.

(my brother's wife martha and their little guy sam)

*a pen and paper

(i received many exceptional drawings from sam which included wonderful explanations)

*great company

(my niece ally is one of my favorite people.  she is so thoughtful, smart, pretty, and talented)

more on her thoughtful/talented side in another post

(will and mom....another award winning shot of you two)

(the center of  attention there is my sister rita, far left my brother russ, far right rita's husband devin)

*cranium

things got pretty wild during our game.  i thought i was going to have to break up a brawl at one point (we take our games in this family pretty serious).  when people weren't arguing over a win/loss they were laughing hysterically.  my sister rita was the winner for most hilarious drawings of the weekend.  she was also the person who kept us laughing with her contagious giggle.  my brother russ and his family (martha, ally, sam, kassy*not pictured because she is away at college in hawaii...missed her) were in town from california which was quite the treat.  i don't see them often enough but when we do spend time together it's always so fun.  being with my older siblings (my dads first 3 kids) is always bittersweet because it makes me miss my dad.  growing up my younger brother and i were so removed from our older siblings because of the age gap, they were all grown and raising their own families while we were young.  it wasn't until my dad left this earthly life that we grew closer.  i know my dad looks down on moments like these and smiles, i wish he could physically be here to laugh with us and see that he raised 5 wonderful people who are all now so close.  times like these make my heart very happy.