Neilsen Family Reunion

There are all kinds of families.  Some are close and loving; some are distant and unloving.  The family I married into is spread from sea to sea but they are the most loving and wonderful people anyone could ask for in a family.  This is the family I traveled 900 miles to be part of their family reunion this past weekend.  I'm just an in-law but my children and grandchildren are all blood relatives of the Neilsen clan.  I'm thrilled even to be only an in-law in this great family.

Kim, Nick and I set out at 3 A.M. on Thursday morning to make what turned out to be  16 hour drive to St. Stephen, New Brunswick.  We had  a very good trip with no bad weather or traffic tie-ups.  We good naturedly fought the whole trip about the value of using cell phone google, GPS, or my CAA trip tiks.  It turned out that none are perfect but my trip tiks were definitely not needed or wanted (by Kim and Nick)...I still like them.

We slept well in our "Deluxe Log Cabin" (not well described, I'm afraid).  It was clean and roomy enough but we had no cold (yes, cold) water for showers on our second to last day and there were many small openings through the logs that had me worrying about rain.  Fortunately, there was none!

My niece, Tammy, and her husband, Doug, hosted the 70 or so descendants and in-laws of the Neilsens who came from Denmark to settle in New Denmark, New Brunswick.  My husband's mother, Ferne, was the second generation to arrive.  I've mentioned before how blessed I was to have Ferne for my mother-in-law and how truly blessed I am to be part of this incredibly wonderful family.

Tammy had arranged the whole reunion and most of it was centered around her beautiful home with expansive yard (hard to call it a yard when it is so huge) and pool.  There were hugs with relatives seldom seen and renewed friendships from previous reunions.  There were seniors like me, middle aged family, teen family, and babies.  It was lovely to see how the younger generations had made and maintained friendships over the years.  It made me proud that I was partly responsible for teaching my own children how important family is and how important it is to keep it together.

My Cindy and all her family drove up in the huge RV they'd rented and Shelley and all of her family made the trip up from Florida and Washington.  Another group of Neilsen descendants flew in from the U.S. west coast.  Some came in from Newfoundland and Maine.  Our group came from Ontario with the only one missing being Matt because he couldn't get the time off work.  It was simply joyous!

We chatted and ate and swam and played games.  We watched old photos on a movie screen outside in the moonlight.  We went whale watching and got to hold starfish and sea urchins.  We repeatedly kissed and hugged just out of happiness to see each other again.  We had bonfires, roasted marshmallows and hiked.  We re-united.

On our last day, our little group went out to the cemetary to visit Ferne's and Jacky's graves.  There are also other family members there but those two were the ones I wanted to spend a solemn moment with.  They are a part of my life, part of my history, and people I loved.  I hope they're somewhere out in the universe carrying on their lives...I know they're not really lying in those graves.

We spent another hour at Tim Hortons having coffee and donuts before Shelley's group had to leave for the airport.  It's never easy saying goodbye but there's a darned good chance we'll see them again this winter...especially me because I'll be spending the winter at 3W.  

St. Stephen was having a chocolate festival this week so Kim, Nick, and I finished the day watching the lumberjack events.  I must say that there are some very good looking and muscular men in that part of the country!

We left New Brunswick at 6 A.M. this morning and headed home.  There was a degree of sadness for me because this could be the very last time I'll ever see New Brunswick because I'm no young chick.  But my children, grandchildren, and greatgrandchildren are part of the Neilsen clan.  They are already firmly entwined in friendships with their blood relatives and I'm pretty sure these friendships will carry on even into generations not yet born.

Yes, this family is blessed and I am blessed to have married into it.