Christmas in July

Each time one of you buys reunion tickets, I get three emails; one from reunion manager to tell me you registered, one from paypal to tell me you paid, and another from reunion manager to tell me you paid via paypal.  So these days, I am full of anticipation every time I check email.  And the suspense really builds because I can't tell who registered from the email subject lines.  I have to open the messages.  It’s fun and exciting and just like pulling presents out of a Christmas stocking.  Here’s what we have received so far:

Sara Maull Foster * Tiffany Wheeler Salvilla *

Rebecca Stanley Larson * Theresa Demers Wyatt*

Brent Midyett * Bay Willingham*

Dana Goolsby Jones * Amanda Keller *

Sherif Guindi * Alexis Wade Guindi *

Josh Feinman * Bill Oldham *

Elizabeth Lucas Averett * Susannah Conley Sayre

Jennie Chapman Linthorst * Carla Ainsworth *

Shannon Muse Baxter

Of course this gets me to thinking of birthday invitations that say “Your presence is your gift.”  So true.  We have many classmates who won’t be able to attend this reunion.  Rachel McCall will have just returned to Egypt.  Matt Bayne will be finishing a project in Dubai.  Rachael Carpenter Byron will be settling her family in Chicago after 3 moves in one year and her older daughter’s first week of kindergarten.  All valid excuses.

Still others chose not to attend.  The ties that bind aren't strong enough to yank them back to Ktown.  I get it.  We each experienced Webb uniquely.  And our lives are busy and complicated.  Sometimes I think that were I not the class coordinator, I might take a pass here and there.  But then I get a registration notice, a chatty email from Jono, or a text from Rebecca and I am reminded that for me, showing up matters.

I have been struggling with defining a theme for our little gathering.  The generous Amanda Keller has offered her help with favors, but I haven't been able to come up with anything until this week.  I SHOWED UP.   That pretty much says it all.