Another Tradition Upheld and Another Art Assignment

We have a few traditions that are as constant as the tides. This past weekend was one of them. It involves  food, special people, and an entire weekend of learning by listening to uplifting speeches from the leaders of my church. If you're curious what I mean by that, here is one you can listen to to get a taste.  We get to experience quite a few of these speeches over the course of the weekend and it is an important opportunity for me to take refuge from the hustle and bustle and re-focus on what I value most.

The food is legendary, a version of a spectacular breakfast that my mom started hosting over 40 years ago. I think it has always included homemade cinnamon rolls along with a few other things. It has come full circle for me, which is the part of the story with the special people and actually makes me weepy. In the early 1970's my parents had just moved 2500 miles from home and found themselves without family nearby so they invited friends to celebrate our faith by watching the conference and eating. Isn't that how it usually is? Faith and food? Anyway, families like the Muciarones and the Shipleys became part of my adopted extended family.  Over the years as our family grew, the breakfast became mostly a gathering of relatives: more and more kids, then spouses, then grandchildren. At its peak, we sometimes had 25 people all living nearby, all family.

Now it's the Nusses on the other end of the 2500 mile move (my folks just retired to Arizona this summer) and we are endeavoring to gather round us our adopted family here in Maryland and keep the traditions going. It feels right, and I hope that the  memories will continue to be warm and full of love and laughter. I also hope that the gathering will grow and change the way my parents' did. 

On another note, in case I forget tomorrow, here is this week's art assignment.  It was about complementary colors. Meaning my entire palette had to come from just two colors that are directly across on the color wheel. I chose orange and blue. I had to mix up my own orange, so I technically I started with three paints-red, yellow and blue. From there I came up with a basic palette of 6 colors and I couldn't actually use red red. I could only use forms of orange.  When you mix complementary colors, they dull each other out, which is the opposite of what happens when they just sit next to each other, when they make each other vibrate and look brighter. I do love all this color exploration. My little painting is simple enough, but it is amazing that all the colors I used were mixed from just two colors.