So much to say about the last week. Reflections on the miracle of Christ’s birth and the blessing of being with family, the craziness of traveling, the tight pants due to multiple dessert indulgences, cold noses and wind burnt faces, and fabulous memories. I will post more upon our arrival back in Chicago but I at least wanted to update about Jason’s family reunion. It is his extended family on his mom’s side and is so named JIMIL because of Jim and Mildred (his grandparents). It was awesome to see everyone since we had not seen some of the family members since JIMIL IV back in 2002. Annikah adored spending time with her second cousins once removed (or whatever they are? this was a discussion multiple times throughout the reunion, what are Jason’s cousins kids’ to Anni?). Highlights of the reunion included the Haiku writing about EVERYTHING (this is a hilarious tradition as after 1 day of this you can no longer talk or think without tapping the syllables with your fingers), touching family updates since last reunion, food (way too much) and fellowship (not enough time), BUNCO tournament that Great Grandma Lower won (when I asked her “Grandma, how are you winning?” she replied “because I am really good!”), Great Grandpa Lower playing ping pong and talking up a storm (like his old self before his stroke), a really touching commissioning service for us, and the traditional talent show. Anni shined in the talent show with her dance routine with her cousins (who selected the song) as the opening act of the night. She also made an appearance later in the evening as a streaker running through the act with no pants on (a result of an escape during a diaper change). The following video is her performance in its entirety but I must say it is well worth the investment of watching it as she broke out some moves that have never been seen before. http://i204.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid204.photobucket.com/albums/bb212/roxanne_engstrom/AnniDancingAtJimilJubilee.flv
