Sisters, Sisters, there were never such devoted sisters.......

One of my favorite movies is White Christmas. I love the Haynes Sisters and their stage act.


I love their song about being devoted sisters. Well, they don't have anything on these girls in the devotion area:

While at NG7 we talked about how many times people express shock that the four of us get along so well and don't fuss and argue. Folks, I don't understand why other people waste time on pettiness and bitterness. Life is a gift and sisters are a bonus on top of that. If you have siblings don't let "stuff" keep you apart.

This year we went to the Tulsa area for NG7. Rhonda's son, Josh, and his wife, April, graciously extended an invitation for us to stay in their home. They stayed someplace else and let us take over their home.















The first thing we did when we got together was, of course, EAT! We went to Scot's Burgers in downtown Bixby. Delicious. I love places that aren't part of a chain.














Then, it was back to Casa de Tomas and time to open the sister gifts. My gift to them was a custom necklace from Harley and Maudes. The large charm says "Here's to good women" on one side and on the other "May we know them, May we raise them, May we be them." The small charm says "Always" and "Remember" and is for our Mother and our youngest sister who have both passed away. There are four jewels representing our birthstones.













Nora gave each of us a beautiful wallet/clutch purse.













Debe gave us each a ring with our birthstone. The neat thing about these rings is that the stones were taken from our mother's "Mother Ring"! Isn't that cool?













Rhonda gave us a delicate necklace with an engraving that says "A sister is a forever friend."












We have such a good time together. And, so much of that time is just sitting around talking and laughing. I can't imagine a better way to spend three and a half days. We shopped, we ate, we napped, we ate, we talked, we cried, we laughed. It was great.

On Friday nights we share about what we did to honor Mother's memory on the anniversary of her death. The acts of kindness we shared ranged from giving money to a ministry to providing new games and toys for a children's home. All of the acts are done as Nettie's girls and represent our effort to honor Mother's generous spirit.

Saturday night is the time we set aside for spiritual reflection. This year was Nora's turn to bring a devotion and challenge to us. She talked to us about our roots-faith, family and fun. It was sweet, thought provoking (Nora's research on roots was so right one) and even funny. I loved the clothesline stories: "rotten to the core"! And the surprise ending was great! I would share but it just wouldn't mean anything to anyone but the four of us. And that is what is so special about NG-it is for US. We also choose a cause or project each year and give towards that as a group. This year we chose to help a lovely young lady in her fight against cancer with just a small financial token.

Sunday morning always finds us beginning to get a little sad. We know it is coming to an end for another year and we just hate to see it happen. We try to stay light and happy but goodbyes are just difficult. Sure, we will all be together at Thanksgiving with our families but it is different from NG. One other thing we do on Sunday mornings is decide where we are going next year. Here's to NG8 in San Antonio, Texas. We are even adding another day this time. And, we are already counting down the days: 357 to be exact!