Wednesday, May 31, 2017

Another overcast day in Manhattan Beach!

The plans for Whistler are firming up.  Heather has a wonderful souvenir for each of us, a mug with Bri's design of Manu Forte.

As I understand so far:
Jane , Andrew, John and Nancy are arriving by car from Nelson sometime on Friday, 16th.
Duncan Tracy and their four kids will also drive, arriving sometime Friday.
Heather, Todd, Brianne and Maddox and dog will arrive sometime Friday from Seattle by car, probably with Daisy and her two kids.
Wendy, Michel, Alex and Matthew Trevor and Valerie will be flying in from various places.
Andrew Mack, Ian and David are as yet unsure of their arrival plans.

This means we are pretty much on our own for dinner that evening.

We have not booked the Peak to Peak dinner but since Andrew Mack cannot be there before Sunday it might be best have it then so we can include him.

There will be a final conference room dinner where we can all feast together in honor of Robin on the last night, which hopefully everyone can attend.

My suite, which I share with Wendy and Michel will host all the other evening get togethers.  I envision a Happy Hour sort of thing with heavy hors d'oeuvres starting about 5:30 or 6:00.  Kids welcome, but we might have a movie corner somewhere for them.  After that people can go back to their respective suites, and eat some more or stay with us till dawn!   Trevor, Wendy, Michel, and I are not heavy eaters so that will be dinner for us I imagine.

The baby pictures should be in by next week if you can.  We want one baby picture of each of you (under one year preferably) and a fairly recent picture.  They will be doctored to black and white or sepia to disguise age!  There will be voting sheets and a box into which you put you guesses.  The babies will be lettered.  Baby A, baby B etc.  and the older pictures will be numbered.  All you have to do is mark which baby goes with which older person.  Winner(s) get  prize!

When we are all together we can decide on entertainment for everyone at the suites.  There is a pool and exercise room.  Trev will bring some movies on a thumb drive.  Duncan and Tracey will bring games.  Matthew will put on a magic show, or juggle, or do fantastic things with a deck of cards. Alex might be prevailed upon to put on an origami demonstration.  Todd, Jane, John, Michel might be coaxed into a little music.  Heather has offered to do a half hour quilt making session for those interested.  We will have a bulletin board for each day's activities.   Of course we want to hear all about you day's adventures at the Happy Hour.

I don't want this to be a financial hardship for anyone, so parking fees,  gas, air fare etc. will be covered if you need it.  Robin's vision was to get our far flung family together and find out about each other.  Family is precious, but sometimes in our busy lives we forget.  Hope you will all make an effort to get to know each other better, make connections (as Jane would say) and be there for each other.  Daisy, Tracey, Todd, David, Michel, Andrew, you are all precious members of the Mackay clan. You hear that, Daisy?  Looking forward to seeing you all,  Love,  Val