Please don't take my sunshine away.

Summer Platte Party:

Saw Gwen and Amy and Jeremy...LOVE THEM!

Saw all aunts but one...LOVE THEM!

Kids played and played and played...LOVE IT!

Heard beautiful singing and guitar playing...LOVE IT!

Got homegrown sweet corn...LOVE IT!

My family is the best. It's filled with happy, positive, God-loving, caring, wonderful men and women...LOVE THEM ALL!


***Please pray for my cousin's baby, Brody Smith. He has leukemia. Visit his care page at www.carepages.com. Search for brodysmith.***

I used to think a wedding was a simple affair. Boy and girl meet, they fall in love, he buys a ring, she buys a dress, they say I do.

Yesterday, I went to my cousin, Andrea's, wedding. The ceremony was at Divine Child Catholic Church and the reception was at the Dearborn Inn. It was really lovely. Andrea is Anna's age, so she was better friends with Anna than she was with me. However, since I was 10, I spent a week at her house every summer. I can remember taking her to the park and having her bonk her head on the monkey bars when I was supposed to be watching her. Ugh. I can remember going with her to the Battle Creek Balloon Festival. I can remember her taking her first steps in our living room in Toledo.

Andrea is a special cousin to me because she is the daughter of Aunt Susie and Uncle Dave who I love a whole lot. As I watched them yesterday at their daughter's wedding, memories flooded my mind and I was so thankful (!) that I hadn't had the baby yet and was able to attend. I was the flower girl for their wedding 26 years ago. It was one of the most wonderful days of my life.

I felt like such a princess. My Uncle Dave was an outsider in our big family, just like I was. Neither of us was from the small town where the rest of the family lived. I wasn't Catholic and didn't have a Godparent like the rest of the kids in the family. That meant that at the big Christmas party, I didn't get as many gifts as the other kids which was a huge crisis. Uncle Dave recognized this and adopted me as his Godchild.

Me and Uncle Dave, 1990.

He and my aunt gave me a gift every year to make me feel like a part of the group. Aunt Susie stayed at our house for weeks while my mom was sick and in the hospital. They let me stay at their house every summer for a week and be silly and goofy and took me shopping and put up with all my antics. I remember sleeping outside at Binder Park Zoo in the rain. I remember shopping in Battle Creek. I remember going for bike rides. I remember biking to Feldpaushes for some dinner items and it wasn't such a great experience. I remember seeing "The Color Purple" at the movie theater. For one brief week, I was part of a normal family where no one was sick or dying. They were at every crossroads and important event in my life including HS volleyball games, the day my mom died, birthdays, HS graduation, wedding reception, birth of babies, rough times, etc... And they didn't live right around the corner. They lived 2 hours away but they always took the time to make me feel special. I love both of them with my whole heart.

The wedding was beautiful. The bride was beautiful. The reception was the nicest I've ever been to. I was able to sit with Anna and talk and laugh. We ate yummy food including mini-desserts. Don't you just love a plate full of mini-desserts? I sure do. I got to dance with Chris which happens almost never. I got to see most of my aunts and look into their eyes and feel, for a brief moment, that I was with my Mom.

It was such a wonderful experience. I wish Andrea and Ryan all the joy and happiness this life can bring. I sure have been blessed with it.

Anna, Aunt Susie and Me.

"Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city." --George Burns

Today was the Platte Family Christmas Party. This event happens every year after Christmas and is part Christmas party, part family reunion. The Platte Family is comprised of my grandmother, her children, her children's children, and her children's children's children. Someday in the near future, i bet we'll have her children's children's children's children. My grandmother is 90. You can read about her here. She has 10 daughters living. They are Aunts Judy, Pat, Katie, Bernie, Mary, Linda, Annie, Jackie, Susie and Tina (born when my grandma was 50). My mother fits between Mary and Linda. There was one son, Tom, who died before I was born, in an accident. His wife remarried and they and their children come to the party too.

A photo of them as children. My mom is peeking out just to the left of my grandma. Anna looks just like her.

The Plattes 2008

My aunts are amazing women. I look up to each one in a different way but mostly I look up to them because they are all such outstanding mothers. Six of them have over five children, several over 10. I have 61 first cousins. My cousins range in age from 18 months to (I'm guessing) 45. Sorry to my oldest cousins if you are younger than this. Many of my cousins are married with children. These children range in age from 22 to newborns. I don't know how many children there are. I would guess somewhere around 90. This brings the total number of people including spouses and significant others attending the party to somewhere around 170. 170 people all attending because of two people who married over 70 years ago and built a strong family with a determination to weather any storm and stand steadfast and immovable.

As long as I can remember, we have held the party at a hall because we are too large a group to fit in anyone's home. When I was little it was at the Westphalia Fire Hall and also at the Westphalia old hall that featured a rather scary basement. The party has been held at the new Westphalia Hall and finally has settled at the Pewamo Hall. As a child, the party involved seeing cousins and playing with toys. My sister and I were almost the only cousins that didn't live right in the same community as everyone else. There were times that I felt like an outsider because these people all knew each other so well and I was felt so different from them. Not only was I a city girl but I was also a different religion from everyone. It would always take me a few minutes to warm up but pretty soon I was running right along with the others. Sometimes we had Santa at the party and sometimes there were movies and pinatas. The party was always a highlight of the year. The current party involves eating the most incredible food on the planet, dodging basketballs, opening gifts and having to thank someone you might have never met for them, singing Christmas carols, keeping your 18 month old from drinking from random cups in the room that may or may not contain beer, talking, laughing and having fun. In addition, many people play cards and this year we took a group photo. The party lived up to all expectations.

I got to spend time laughing at my Uncle Dave's dry wit, marveling at the beauty and slenderness of cousins and aunts and wondering why my dad's genes are so dominate in my genetic makeup, singing favorite Christmas songs that I only get to hear at the party, eating glorified rice, talking with my grandma even though I don't think she knows me anymore, listening to all the complements on my beautiful children, proudly standing by Anna as everyone oohed and aahed over Lucy and just loving being with these people who represent the one person I miss more than anything.

As I listened to my aunts sing, (they are amazing) I could hear my mother's voice and see her standing there clapping and laughing. I was once again reminded that I am never going to stop missing her. She was there with us today and I will always cherish the Platte Party because at it I can feel that much closer to her.

Anna and Lucy, Me and Grandma Platte

Cameron having fun on a riding toy.

Uncle Sam with Anna and Lucy

Spencer or Michael Jordan?

Anna looks a little too excited about Lucy's first Platte Party toy.

Spencer gives a hearty thumbs up to his Assault Machine Gun. Maybe they figured since we live near Detroit...?

Cameron was fascinated by the guitars and music.

He also got in on a poker game.

This is an interesting crucifix sculpture outside the hall. Calvin and Spencer got into a big argument over whether or not it is Jesus. I think I might have to agree with Spencer. That's not the Jesus that I know.

Baby Shower Part Deux

On Saturday, my Aunt Katie hosted a baby shower for Anna. All of my aunts attended except Annie and Diane. Many cousins were also there as well. Anna's friend Wendy from Lansing attended as well as our friend Jodi, who lives somewhere is Washtenaw County. Some of Tony's family also attended including his mother, grandmother, aunt and several cousins. Aunt Katie and her daughters Renee and Maria had lovely decorations and wonderful food! Aunt Annie made great lasagna. There was a yummy spaghetti salad, awesome bread pudding, great dip with chips...and much more but I'm running out of adjectives. All the food was wonderful! We played two games and Anna opened another mountain of presents. We made a pink beaded bracelet for Anna to match her necklace. Some of my favorite gifts she received at this shower are: the Barbie clothes from Nana Boner, the book for Lucy from Emily, and the Frogpod tub toy storage system from Carrie, Mary, Carrie, Annie, Carrie and Carrie and I know Chad has a Dawn.

I'm going to have to post a separate post later about my amazing family and how much they mean to me.

On the way home we drove through Westphalia to see that all the store windows were painted with the likenesses of Catholic saints. Including the bar(s). I have included the pictures of those as well. Anna, Emily and I got a good laugh over
them.