Peterson Pie Party

 On Saturday we had a Peterson Pie Party at our home.  I decided a few weeks ago that I wanted to have a family party.  We do not see our extended family often and I think that is wrong is so many ways.  We have good friends who have parties and activities with their siblings and sometimes with their entire families all the time.  I'm always feeling a little bit gypped when it comes to family ties so I decided to be proactive and plan something.  How glad I am that I did it.  We had a great turn out.  How sad that we had to do introductions because I do not know all of my nieces and nephews children.  We were cozy in our home, but that makes it even better because then there's lots more interaction between each other.  My darling niece Niki gave us a copy of my sisters journal who passed away several years ago.  It is haunting to read.  She wrote for many years and I had no idea she even kept a journal.  She had a stroke many years before she passed away.  She wrote on the month of her stroke.  "I had a stroke"  that was all -- just one sentence.  Then the rest of her entries were written with child like hand writing and her spelling was completely phonetic which in the English language is usually not how it is actually spelled.  Her last entry was seven years before she died.  It was about our father and his passing.  She wrote "Dad dide 5:30 am  he rilly fot for life.  he had a wodeful funeil."  She never wrote again.  The haunting thing about this is that strokes run in my family.  That could very well be me in a few years.  A very humbling thought.