FAMILY REUNION...

"t u a n y u a n"

Tuanyuan is Chinese for R E U N I O N, the characters of which literally mean "a perfect circle".

Years ago when I was a little girl, my mother always longed  to go to her family reunion.  But during MY lifetime at home, that didn't happen too often.  The reunion she wanted to attend was the one to be with her parents and siblings.  It was the James George and Sarah Jane Crane Family Reunion which was held somewhere in Southeastern Idaho or around Herriman, Utah, (I think) the first week in August every single summer.  I remember going a few times--and I hated every minute of it!  Everybody seemed to be a cousin of some sort or another--fancy THAT at a reunion--and I only knew about three of them.  That would be Fred, Ralphene, and Helen Butterfield who were my Aunt Cornelia's youngest children.  Everyone else was waaaay older than I was, except the pack of kids who belonged to Uncle Bill.  I didn't know a one of them.  And didn't care to....

In a way I kind of envied my sisters who DID know those cousins, as they had lived in Salt Lake City near the vicinity of where some of those cousins lived (in Herriman and in Draper, too--now there was a dusty little hole in the road!)--or had been up to Idaho enough times to be acquainted with the cousins their age.  I can remember them talking about Dayton, Beverly, Don, Seth, Warren, and others whom I knew only by sight or not at all.  I didn't fit in.  I thought the whole thing with a program and talent show, family business meeting, camping out, and shared dinners was tedious and uncomfortable.  The years my dad (who knew all these people from his sheepherding days, but didn't seem too keen on going either) vetoed our attendance by always using his work as an excuse, I was secretly glad and relieved that I wouldn't be expected to join in with "the cousins" doing something I had no interest in doing. And, up until Aunt Cornelia died just a few years ago, I still got one of those Crane Reunion invitations each summer.

Those negative feelings about reunions changed, however, when all of you came into the picture.  First I liked to show you off to my sisters and their families at the Melvin Reed and Maude Marie Huggins Family Reunion. I was involved in the planning of several of those reunions, and we had FUN!  Some of you may even remember when it was held in Colorado at our Secrest Court house--once just days before Britty was born, and again during the time Ross was working with Gage Behunin and the asbestos project.  Then after the marriages and grandkids came along, we started having a Nichols Family Reunion every once in a while. 

Now I think another family reunion is a great idea--especially if all the Nichols Kids and the Second Generation Nichols Kids attend.  So, I was pleased when Britty suggested that 2015 should be the year for ALL the Nichols Family to gather once again in Colorado for a great Thanksgiving holiday. I'll be nearly 70 years old!  It is about time!

A year should be plenty enough time to formulate solid plans.  Make it happen.  Let's have a perfect circle once again!