TWO JOYFUL THINGS!

Last night (Tuesday), we hosted a drive-thru Thanksgiving meal for our families at Community Catholic. It was the second time for the drive-thru since covid hasn’t allowed large gatherings. We had a great turnout of families, driving up to our building to pick-up a meal with turkey & the fixings…including a large pumpkin pie!

This event was my first one last year and it made my heart smile! About seven young men from Trinity High School manned the tables and when someone pulled up, the doorman called out the name, and the team sprang into action. It was a great night! Nearly 50 families requested the meals and we delivered them with a smile!

In addition, each child in the family received a wooden ornament to decorate for our Christmas tree. Right before Christmas, they will be asked to bring their ornaments in to hang on our tree and they will pick up gift bags left by Santa!

The generosity of the donors to our organization is amazing and it’s definitely something to be joyful about! Happy Thanksgiving to these families!!

Saving the best for last, I have to say this past weekend was a huge success and after 45 years, I couldn’t love my classmates any more than I do today. The weekend was so much fun.

From pizza by the bridge with some early birds on Thursday, to all day setup and celebrating on Friday in the Waterford Room on the top floor of the hotel, to lunch on Saturday and a super casual party in our suite…the weekend was full of hugs, laughs, tears, friendship and lots of love.

This was the first reunion without our fellas (Lyn’s husband and my husband) so we had to make it happen at a facility where we didn’t have to do the manual labor. It was bittersweet not to have them by our sides, but we were each other’s “plus one” and we made it happen. There were other hands along the way and a special person in the midst who really made it happen, but overall, it was one big success!

The compliments and kind words are flowing in and we are loving it! There is a consistent theme and that is how fortunate we are to have a class that is so close. It is also being mentioned that many classmates enjoyed lengthy conversations with others they had not connected with at previous events. It seems we all have had struggles on some level but overall, we are happy, surviving our grief and sad times, knowing that we have a pretty great community of friends.

Although I’m sure there were those among us who were struggling somehow, no one really knew. Everyone seemed happy and satisfied with their lives…careers, grandchildren, retirement (oh how I was jealous of that word!), downsizing homes and buying vacation homes…We are a happy group!

For those classmates who may be reading this, thank you for making my weekend so much fun! Honestly, I can hardly wait until 2026!!! For those of you who we missed, I hope and pray that you will be able to attend our 50^th! Can you believe that will be our next reunion???

I’d also like to encourage anyone who hasn’t participated in their reunion to please consider going to yours! Life is precious and high school was a big part of our lives! You never know who you may touch with remembering a funny story or kind act. Believe me, those stories are still funny and we all remember someone who was especially kind to us.

Thanks for letting me share my joy! Grateful for my November joyful moments!!

xoxoxox