We recently held our annual Matthews family reunion at our house. We really enjoy having three or four days of great visiting with Sheila’s interesting and brilliant cousins. Her first cousin Dona Ward sent us a rain gauge as a bread & butter gift. It is a type I was unfamiliar with. I love it. It is very easy to read. It arrived just in time for the deluge. This morning we saw that it recorded four and a half inches of precipitation overnight!
Our great niece Vada celebrates her eleventh birthday this week. Since we could not be there then we celebrated with a mini-party during our Thanksgiving visit to Tallahassee. Vada seemed genuinely pleased with everything about it. Here are a few pictures.
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| Sheila and I got Made a gift card and a couple of magazines- one of Christmas recipes for kids and the other about animals. |
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| Lillian and Jordan got her a blanket and other goodies ... |
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| from Buc-ees of all places. |
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| Then we all headed off to The Fat Cat Cafe... |
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| ...whiuch is not actually a cafe... |
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| ...but rather a place for inter-species recreation... |
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| ...where humans and felines... |
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| ...can interact. |
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| Lillian likes to provoke cats into mind boggling aerial displays. |
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| The place is a non-profit which makes cats available for human adoption. |
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| I was worried that Lillian might leave with several. |
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| But who could choose? |
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| Here is our entire party (L-R) Lillian, Sheila, Me, Nora, Vada, Jimmy, Sally, and Jordan. |
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| Dinner with the Matthews cousins and associates at Shorty’s in Tucker. L-R: Terrell, Sheila, Adam, Sage, Mimi, Dona, Wolf, Carol, Jinsie, Michael, Lillian. |
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| Jinsie & Michael, with Lillian. |
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| Sheila shows pictures on her iPad to Adams and Sage as Dona looks on. |
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| Sheila's first cousin is a volunteer wildlife rehabilitator with the Arabia Mountain Preserve near Lithonia. During her visit with us she was kept busy feeding Pedialyte to several baby squirrels on a scedule of once every couple of hours. The little things haven't opened their eyes yet. |
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| Vada kept us entertained all weekend. She tried to join me on stage during my performance of "If I Were a Rich Man" on FRiday night, but quick action by her Mom postponed her stage debut. |
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| Sally, Sheila, Vada, & Carol examine a Double Wedding Ring quilt pieced by Shelia's mother (Mavis Snell Matthews) and her friends for Aunt Wilma Matthews McAfee in the seventies. |
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| This gorgeous quilt, over a hundred years old now, is being held by five descendants of Carrie Bell Norris Matthews, one of several little sisters who created it as preteens. Sally Matthews, third from the left, is married to a sixth descendant of Carrie Bell, |
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| All the remaining (very young) eldest generation of Matthews descendants: Sheila Ann Mathews Shaw, James Clarence Matthews, Jr., Carol McAfee Dearborn, and Dona Jane Matthews Ward |
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| Seven of the descendants of Carrie Bell Norris Matthews and Joseph Clarence Matthews. |
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| The James (Jimmy) Clarence Matthews, Jr. family -- minus Derrick who had to work this weekend. |
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| Wolf & Carol |
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| Brannon spent a few days on her own with her grandparents in Tallahassee just before her seventh birthday. Here is her letter home. |
