Stone soup.

This is the setting for our annual family get-together known as "the Point." It is a beautiful piece of land covered with maples and surrounded by lake on three sides. My siblings and I grew up playing here as soon as we were old enough to wander out in the cow pastures on our own. When we got older we spent many a night out here with our friends. Most of all though, we spent our childhoods gazing at this land and the lake from the kitchen table every day- it was our gauge on the seasons, the weather and the local wildlife.
Every year we have a soup instead of a theme. Some examples are chili, potato and kielbasa and minestrone- we each make our own version and it gets mixed up together. This year it was "Stone Soup." Each family (each mom- lets be realistic) makes up a batch of the soup and brings it out- it all gets dumped into a kettle that simmers on the fire all day. Soup for lunch, leftover soup for supper. Everyone comes and goes and there is soup to eat. It always tastes good out in the cool fall weather.
The kettle is still on after nightfall. (I heard some girls were snacking on soup when they came back after the kyds hayride.) And yes, there was a stone in the pot.
Here is the granddad and grandmom who caused all this. We all appreciate the place where they raised us, the values they taught us and the family they created. We gather round the warmth, not of the fire, but of this family.