Family Night

Last night was one of my favorite nights ever with the Horton clan. Mama and Daddy and I drove into Rio Hondo just in time for the dinner gathering of all of my aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents. We are here for Easter, but we're also here to celebrate family milestones -- Nana's 70th birthday, Papa's 72nd, and we even managed to sqeeze my graduation into it, too. The first thing that struck me was just how much I love the people who were gathered in that house. We are a loud and raucous crew. I remember when there were 13 of us, and that seemed like a lot. Now, there are 19 of us, including 3 babies, and the noise and crowd just add to the sweetness of our time together. We started the evening like we always do, eating Taco Salad. Once the last bit of guacamole had been scraped from the bowl, we turned our chairs to face the easel, set up to play "Win, Lose, or Draw!" family style. My dad and Aunt Debbie had made a list of stories about Nana or Papa that we'd all heard over the years, and us grandkids were in charge of drawing them out and getting the family to guess which story we were depicting. I wasn't sure how well this seemingling cheesy plan was going to work, but we laughed so hard and each story we drew would remind us of about ten others, and even after we had used all the clues Daddy and Debbie came up with, we continued drawing our own memories. When we'd exhausted that, it was time for cards and gifts. Nana is the oldest of 9 brothers and sisters. Daddy had each of them send cards and letters for her to his office and gave them the chance to call in and leave her voice messages which he downloaded onto his computer and used to create a very special powerpoint for her with their pictures and stories. We all teared up as this 70 year old big sister listened to the loving comments of her younger siblings, one hailing all the way from Alaska! For Papa, the preacher, we'd found a solar-powered lighthouse to go in the backyard and remind him of one of his favorite analogies for the Gospel message. Then, we gathered back into the kitchen to eat cakes (one white, one chocolate) designed by our own cake-decorator, Daisy. While eating cake, we watched powerpoint Daddy put together to commemorate my graduation. I think it ocntains every picture of me ever taken. My generous family surprised me by having cards and gifts for me as well. Amazing. The grand finale of the evening was a DVD my cousin Jaclyn edited for Papa of a flying lesson he'd given her brother, Travis in his airplane a while back. Travis is a musician and the whole thing was set to some of his music. It was wonderful. My heart was already so full in anticipation of celebrating Easter itself, but to be here with this special people has been more than I can contain. Papa shared with us as we watched the footage of him and Trav flying over our home town that we couldn't begin to imagine how many times he has taken that plane up and, alone in the sky, called out our names before the Lord, petitioning for the needs he sees in our lives. Oh, how I praise the Lord for Papa's prayers.