A Special Schaper Celebration

We were delightedly surprised this year when a couple of weeks before Christmas we heard some rumors that a Schaper gathering might be in the works. We’ve always loved hosting a “wallabalu” even in our little space, and we hadn’t had a Schaper Christmas in a little while, so we were super pleased to hear of a surprise gathering to celebrate a special birthday for Aunt Nancy and do some festiviting with the whole crew. There were a lot of ‘pendings’ – weather, driving from out of staters, prior commitments- but everyone made it in by Saturday evening. We had our traditional (only slightly scaled down version) Noodle Bake dinner. And when the doorbell rang twice to reveal two sets of Northern Michigan Schapers (fighting foggy and on the way back icy roads) Aunt Nancy was quite surprised indeed. Later all 17 or so squeezed into our family room for presents for the kids and a very special gift for Aunt Nancy from the cousins.

The night ensued with chatting, yummies, a touch of cleaning up, and games around the table through the late hours of the night. We were excited to have cousins Mike and Dee with Trent and Lexi stay with us and share kid stories and tricks of the trade. Alexander, though a bit out of sorts after the high energy week talked about “Mik-n-Dee” coming to “our house” for several days. Nancy and Serena’s mom returned to join us on Sunday morning for a yummy brunch and pictures galore before everyone had to head home. It was a fine weekend, and good just to have everyone together again for some good laughs and chatter even with the touch of chaos on the side. We’re so very glad that everyone could make it down for a shadowy hint of the ‘olden days’ and we look forward to cottage events and warmer visits down the road.