Whew after all the planning and all the preparation the year has sped by and we are reliving the wonderful day in our rear view mirror – well not quite, we haven’t left yet, nor do we plan to for another week. Carol covered the “day” in her recent blog at Eyeshine.

Once again the tent was set up in the orchard, this time with walls and heaters. The family gathered Friday night at the house and the celebration began with Sabbath rituals and plenty of good food.

By 10 in the morning the tent was filling, the parkers were about done, and the service got off, just a bit late. I will admit that I had tears in my eyes for most of the service. After we finished the Torah service and Josh had lifted the Torah and we had put it away, Dan grabbed Corey and started to dance, before you could say,”this isn’t on the schedule” I was up to join them and then all my boys were circling with Corey. Then the Queen of the family, Carol, joined in and we concluded with Corey in the middle being squashed by all. Oh, was I in tears then!

After Kiddush (lunch) under the tent, the crowd began to thin. Eventually leaving just the family to reassemble for a cook out in the early evening. One tradition that has continued through all kinds of family events was that whatever Scotch Whiskey I had brought was consumed, thank you Joel for the anCnoc, it went down very well when the Lagavulin was gone 🙂 Everyone reappeared for Sunday Morning Brunch at Brookville Restaurant and then the exodus began. The last family, other than Carol and I, were gone by Tuesday morning. We are sticking around at least through Carol’s birthday.

Once again I was delighted not to be the senior family member as Uncle Josh, my dad’s brother, and Aunt Gloria attended and participated in handing down the Torah and later helping us dispatch the Scotch. It is so special to have four generations present at a celebration such as this.