The next big event on the schedule was a birthday party for Nana Banana, who had turned 70 earlier in December. Now was our chance to celebrate in style with her extended family gathered around her.
Such events would not count unless the Skonieczny's were involved in some manner. It is highly possible that there is an official Skonieczny quota for Bowes events to count as official. On the left we have two of the Skonieczny representatives in the persons of Melanie Loeber and her son Jack. Jack may very well be one of the sweetest and well behaved gentle soul we have ever met. We were scared what Reese might be able to teach him in such a short period of time. We don't think she did any permanent damage fortunately.
As mentioned in an earlier post, Santa brought Callie exactly what she wanted, a rainbow loom. And as a special treat, we let Callie bring her rainbow loom to CT. She proceeded to take orders from all of her relatives so that she could make bracelets in each person's favorite colors. Here she shows her Great Aunt Terry how she puts it all together. It was so much fun to watch Callie give gifts to all the people who have been so incredibly generous to her over the years.
Another special treat that evening was Jay making his famous Cherry's Jubilee. Of course, that is not the only reason he is getting such a big hug from Brendan. However, Brendan wanted to be by his grandfather's side so that he could observe and learn about the dessert that specifically requires you to light things on fire. Seriously though, this is such a sweet picture, and it really was wonderful to see the two of them working together to get the dessert ready.
All good parties have more than one dessert, and here we see the guest of honor blowing out the candles on her birthday cake with the assistance of Callie and Reese. The girls are more than happy to be involved in anything that might lead to getting dessert. And Nana Banana ensured they were first in line to get a taste.
Because of the scheduled events we got to spend an entire day with Tommy and Terry, which is a gift in and of itself. They both work too hard, and we don't get to see them as often as we would like. Hopefully one day we will be successful in getting them to come to Kentucky for a little horse racing or some college basketball. We happen to be pretty good at both of those things down here. Just saying.
The great times continued long into the evening, and another highlight was watching Callie and Reese spend time with the Skonieczny kids. Here is Ella, Mike and Kristen's oldest, reading to the girls and Jack. We would be quite happy if the girls simply followed in Ella's path. She is a wonderful girl and has a joy for life that is fun to see.
One other event that is a must do each year is the sibling dinner. This time we managed to fit it in the night after the birthday party and headed out to Branford all packed into one vehicle. It is safe to say that John could not have asked for better brothers-in-law. Chris and Brian are both easy going, fun to spend time with, and genuine to the core.
It's great that all of us get along so well and want to make the effort to be with each other. And it always helps that Nana Banana, Sport, and the older cousins are willing to take on the little ones for the night so that we can all go out. And in case you missed the theme of the CT posts so far, we will say that the good times were not over by far. There was still a big night to come!
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