Every year, my Dad's family have gotten together in early fall to draw names for Christmas. This event usually took place the first weekend of October at my grandparents house in celebration of PawPaw Mack birthday (Oct. 4). Although they have both passed, this tradition has continued, but with a few changes. Now it is celebrated near my Dad's birthday (Sept. 20) at Square Post. Dad fried fish and all that other good stuff that tastes good in grease. Then there were plenty of sides and desserts provided by aunts, uncles, and cousins. This year, Dad & I counted 52 in attendance. I know this sounds like a bunch, but I counted over 40 that weren't there. Oh the joys of a big family. There were several little cousins Hadley's age. Rex (Hoot's son) is just a couple of weeks younger than Hadley. So they had a blast together. Shaylee (Kim's daughter) and Taylor found a mud hole that seemed to good to resist. At first, Hadley did not join them. She even protested and told Taylor it was a "no no" to be in the mud. She told me that the mud smelled bad. Hadley tried hard, but those other girls just looked like they were having so much fun. So then my brave girl tipped toed across the mud. Then she walked through it briskly. Then she got a rock in her shoe, so she sat down in the mud to retrieve the rock. After that, she was running with mud splashing wildly around here. My daughter, who until recently would not step on the grass with bare feet, was a total mess.
This reminds me of a Tedder get-together on a Sunday afternoon when I was little. My grandparents lived in a house at the Stanford school. They had the key to the gym and all of us gradkids would play ball there. To get to the gym, you had to cross a ditch (sewer ditch). There was a make-shift bridge to cross it, but that was not very exciting. All of the older kids were jumping it. I thought I was just as big, so I made my giant leap across. Unfortunately, my leap "across" landed smack dab in the middle of the ditch. Did I mention that it was a sewer ditch? So instead of playing outside or in the gym, I had to take a bath, put my church dress back on, and stay inside with the grown folks. At least I let Hadley continue to play.
