Old Fashioned Blogging

Yesterday we spent the day at Family Reunion. I can only remember going to one true family reunion with my family (although there have been plenty of times where we've all gotten together), but Wesley's family has a 3 day family reunion every July. Last year (my first time to go and just days before our wedding) we spent the entire three days there. This year since I'm pregnant and not sleeping well, I didn't want to attempt to sleep on the bunk beds, so we just went for the day.

We had a great time! Wesley played a lot of sports with "cousins" (I use the term loosely - you know.....those beyond your first cousins) and I did a lot of sitting and talking, or listening really.

The reunion is of Wesley's paternal grandmother. Her maiden name is Jones and there were 13 "original Joneses". I refer to them as the OJ's, ha! I'm not sure if anyone else does this, but it makes sense to me! Maybe its just because I'm pregnant right now - but there is no way I would want to have 13 babies! That means that Mrs. Jones (the matriarch of the family) spent roughly TEN YEARS of her life pregnant - noooo thank you! Some of the OJ's have passed away, but their families are still coming to reunion.

Last night after dinner I sat around listening to Mrs. Taff (Wesley's grandmother, and OJ #9, I think), one of her sisters, and one of her brothers tell stories about when they were growing up. Some of them were very amusing!

One thing I learned about the OJ's is that they have an old-fashioned blog (as I referred to it) it's really a stack of letters they send around to each other. They call it the "JJ" - "Jones Journal."

The JJ starts with OJ numero uno, and he writes a letter to the rest of the family about anything that he chooses. You can write about life, updates on your kids and grandkids, the weather, etc., really just whatever fancies you! Then, that person sends their letter to OJ #2, who reads the letter, and then writes their own letter to add to the pile. This continues all the way to OJ #13, who then sends all 13 of the letters back to OJ #1. After its made a complete round, you write a new letter to replace your old letter, and send the thing on again.

They are currently on round number 141! The length of time it takes to make a round varies. I wish I had asked when the JJ got started, but I didn't (but, I did find out it takes 4 stamps to mail that thing! : ) ). I actually got to look at some of the letters too. Wesley's grandmother's last letter in the JJ was written in Jan. 2010.

Because some of the OJ's have passed away, they just have a representative (like a son or daughter) to write the letter and update everyone on what's going on with that family.

Wesley's grandmother mentioned that she has saved all of her prior letters (all 140 of them), and that they serve as an excellent family history. I was so fascinated by the whole thing. I don't know many families who are so close to each other, enjoy each other, and genuinely care about even the trivial things of each other's lives. I'm lucky to have married into that! : )