Making a Deposit

Left to right in back are Lovely Girl and Boys #1, #4, #2, and #3.

The best thing about last weekend, of course, was the heart-filling evening we spent with people who appreciated what my father is and does and has done. But right behind that best thing, maybe even in a tie for best thing about the weekend, is another wonderful feature of the weekend: We were all together.

Not only were all of my siblings able to attend the celebration, all of the Boys and Lovely Girl were there as well.

This doesn't happen often, what with them living in four different states. We feel so, so fortunate that everyone gets together a couple of times each year, and certainly we had banked a whole lot of togetherness time when they were growing up and we always traveled in a pack. It's a funny thing about this kind of banked time, though. You've heard the old story about the rich man who was asked how much money was enough, and he replied "Just a little bit more."? All that banked time just makes me want a little bit more and last weekend I had that.

So in the less than 24 overlapping hours we had after Boy#1 and Lovely Girl arrived from Missouri, Boy#2 flew in from North Carolina, Boy#3 drove over from western Kansas, and Boy#4 was in from Texas, we made the time count. We talked, we laughed, we visited the World's Largest Ball of Twine, and we spent hours putting together jigsaw puzzles in the hotel lobby.

The completed puzzle in the picture is composed of coffee labels, which might explain the manic expression on my face, but we also completed one of cookies and started a final one that would have been ice creams. The good folks at the Super 8 probably did not intend for us to run through their entire stock of puzzles but as it turns out, puzzles are a good way for us to be together with no screen time and very little competition. (I say "very little" because Boy#3 is a fierce puzzle completer. Go for the same piece he is looking at and you will realize you are old and slow.)

As we gathered around the table and discussed whether this piece had a tiny blue line through it or whether the one with two innies and three outies was actually missing, no one was checking a phone, no one turned on the television, no one updated Facebook.

I am not very good at jigsaws, but that wasn't a problem. I sat back pretending to look for a piece and just took in the hubbub around me. My reserves of family time had been running low and I was banking time.

Yes, definitely tied for best thing about the weekend.