Tea Time

 On January 6th we celebrated my Grandma Francis's 80th birthday.  Even though I had plenty of work to tend to before returning to Walsh for my second semester as a professional advisor I could not, and would not, pass up the opportunity to get together with the family.  Despite having gathered with the big Francis gang numerous times in a few short weeks for my newest cousin Marcos's baptism on Dec. 23rd, our Christmas gathering on the 25th, and my cousin Jessica's baby shower on the 28th we were ready to bust out the party hats again to sing the classic "Happy Birthday" tune two times over for the matriarch.  There was a decent showing and always a fun challenge to see how many people we can fit into a single room.

The picture really only captures about one third of the audience I would guess but it definitely includes the woman of the hour.  My grandparents live in the same house that they built and raised ten children in.  It's a ranch that originally had  three bedrooms and one bathroom.  Although they eventually made bedroom additions there really was only one  full bathroom that 12 people shared for until all the kids were grown and out of the house.  My dad, the oldest boy, had apparently enclosed a more substantial shower in the basement during his high school years to alleviate traffic jams.  Needless to say, all my aunts and uncles survived and are a pretty fun crowd to be around.  The family is pretty dynamic with the original crew, their spouses, their children, and now their children's children  (Luke and Augustine would fall in this category). My two youngest aunts are really only a few years older than me and my older sister Kate who is the second oldest grandchild.  Consequently, I have cousins that are close in age to my children and, Marcos, the newest addition is the youngest grandchild with a handful of great grandchildren that are actually older.  It might seem a little crazy, but mostly it's just CRAZY FUN!

If that's not enough family to make your head spin...I'll just briefly mention that my mom is also 1 of 10 kids.  Imagine marrying in to that!

As a secondary celebration to the gift of Grandma Francis I took the opportunity to share some memories and fun times with my boys.  I took out the miniature tea set that Grandma had got each of us girls one year and made up a tiny feast of our own.  It was as fun as I remember when I was little and the boys enjoyed it too.

The Spread

Honorary Guests

Elegant Pour

The Service.

Let me do it!

Hmmm....I'll try one of these.

Pinky out.