Family Day without a Picture

Family Day without a picture to show for it. Where was our camera?  Doral, Anita, Meighan, Ceilidh and Dalton came down from Edmonton for Family Day. Double Family Day for them, for they have Johnson and Treleaven Family, ... so many in one city. We enjoyed a wonderful five hours with them: Indian Food, the Quarter Game, Sorry, Thomas the Train in Michael’s train room, birthday celebrations for Thomas and Ceilidh. All of that and I don’t have a photo to post.
This is our second time playing the Quarter Game with the Edmonton Johnsons.  I was on a superior team
of three: Richard, Ceilidh and me.  We were soundly thrashed. Four people were on the team on the other side of the table.  They whipped us soundly. Our side would decide who had the townie and then the first hand that we lifted would have the coin under it, giving them 7 points on every round. The score was so high for them at the end of the game Anita didn’t even both calculating it.

We had to resort to tricky to get a turn, one of us telling the other team to raise their hand, using such a commanding tone in our voice that they forgot who was really the boss. Ceilidh did a great job on our side. We just didn’t have the information to give her about who really had the coin.

Meighan has a poker face while playing. There is no way one can tell if she has the coin under her hand or not. She can slip the coin onto the table with a gentle roll of her hands, or pound it down with force so that no one knows where the coin is at all.

On other fun fronts, I had an equally good time as we gifted Thomas with his 83rd birthday compliments. “What I like about the birthday person ...”, that is a traditional heritage form. Dalton could say he was glad for the operas he had seen with Thomas. Anita has collected some of his poetry. Kelve thanked him for being the other half of the team that adopted him. And so it went on around the table.  I think his independence is amazing: he can get to church, to the barber shop, to an opera, out shopping, over to see his sister, ... he is limited in his travels only by the city boundaries, which in our case of Calgary is a pretty big circumference.

It was fun to play “What I like about the birthday person ...”with Ceilidh since she is the other March birthday. She has leadership skills, cares for others, dresses with fashion, practices her lessons (piano and singing) on her own ....A memorable round for her.

Our happiness around the table would still be going on if the Johnsons had not had to leave to find similar joys with the other part of their extended family. Their long ride down the highway from Edmonton to Calgary was not lost on those of us who laughed away the time we spent together on Family Day.

Hugs and kisses to family,

Arta