Sibling Weekend, part two

Our Sibling Sunday was another good day.  It started out the same as Saturday - slow and relaxed.  Mary Ellen made baked oatmeal for our breakfast.  Again we had lots of time to keep on talking!  

Rose's father-in-law passed away a few months ago, and his burial service was being held Sunday afternoon.  Some of Rose's family had come up from Georgia and South Carolina for that, and we all were eager to see them.  

The burial was at Westminster Presbyterian Church near Lancaster, a really beautiful service.  He had served in the Korean War, so there were older former servicemen there to do the military ceremonies, including the playing of Taps, which always brings me to tears.  

There was a light reception in the fellowship hall afterward, which gave us lots of time to catch up with Rose's family.  Absolutely delightful!!!

Four (out of six) of Rose and Bob's children were there - Julia, Christy, Katie, and Matthew.  Two of their daughters, Maribeth and Olivia, were unable to come.  We aunts had the greatest time with these kids, now adults, whom we have known since birth!

From there we went to Dick and Nancy's place for the evening.  Nancy had her beautiful table set for us again. But I don't think anyone got a picture of us sitting down this time.

One really special thing we did together was looking at pictures of Grandma Mary I had compiled after she passed away in September.  Dick cast them up onto his TV, so we could all see them together.  Lots of discussion, some laughter and some tears as we watched.  How we loved her and her humor.  And her food and her love!  It's still hard to believe how quickly COVID took her from us.  

We gathered on the deck for the official 2021 sibling photo taken by Nancy, our photography expert!

In case anyone does not know us, we are Doris-5th, Jean-4th, Rose-8th, Barb-6th, Dick-2nd, Betty-7th, and Mary Ellen-3rd.  We were not in age order for this photo, so I added the birth order.  Of course, Janet had been 1st. 

Then we sisters went back to our Airbnb for one last night.  By that time we had thrown all caution to the wind as we sat and munched on every available food that was still left.  There was plenty of it!  Pretzels and cheese and sweet bologna and chips and donuts and cookies and leftover pulled chicken and fruit. I'm sure I forgot a few things!

Our bedtime was a bit earlier since we all had to be on our way home the next morning.   

Barb and Mary Ellen left in the wee hours of the morning.  Mary Ellen took Barb to the Harrisburg airport and then came back to the house before most of us had even stirred.  We ate leftover eggs and baked oatmeal and English muffins as we began to clean up everything.  We took a last picture before we all left, without Barb of course.  Rose and Betty were so surprised at how their clothes matched when they both walked into the dining room, hahaha!!  We agreed that if we had had two more days together we would not have run out of things to talk about!  

I took Rose to the Harrisburg airport and we sadly said our goodbyes for another year.   We knew Betty was on her drive back to New Hampshire.  Doris and Mary Ellen did not have far to go home.  I think we all felt like this had been our best time together ever because of the lack of pressure and having so much time to just relax and talk and be together.  

I went to Destiny and Alex's place.  She was at work.  At lunch time I took Elizer with me to the restaurant.  

Destiny's boss had made an ethnic specialty of his - Egyptian Moussaka, which I ordered.  It is a red sauce with eggplant in it.  Absolutely scrumptious!!  Especially with garlic bread. 

These hibiscus were blooming outside the restaurant.  I remembered how Sophie used to call them "hibiscuits" haha!!  

We took Alex to work when we got to their place, then came back and hung out for a while before I headed for home.  There was a storm before I left, and I drove through lots of water on the roads at first, but then it cleared and I had a good drive home.  All my sisters, including the three out-of-staters, were home before I was, haha!!  

I've been busy trying to catch up ever since.  Actually, on Tuesday I looked up a recipe for Egyptian Moussaka and made it for us and for Anthony and Lori.  It wasn't as good as what I had at the restaurant, but it was good!

We had a really bad storm in this area on Tuesday evening.  Anthony and Lori heard a loud crack one time, but their power did not go out.  However, the next morning there was tree bark strewn across their driveway.  Then they saw a tree that had obviously been struck by lightning, the bark peeled off, the trunk split part, but it had not fallen down!  They had a tree service with a crane come out to take it down.  

You can see on the left picture where it was in relationship to the basketball hoop on their driveway!!  We are beyond thankful it did not fall over onto the house!!

Yesterday I took the time to walk around the house to take pictures of the lilies and the first sunflower.  I love being with more loved ones this year compared to last summer.  But I definitely have less time to sit on the porch or tend my flowers.  Can't have it all!

Have a great weekend!