St. Mary's Northern Picnic

Our dear priest contacted me several months ago asking about helping to organize a "northern" picnic for those who travel quite a ways to attend Mass at our church. I, of course, thought it was a wonderful idea. As is my little "custom" before any big gatherings, I say a little novena to St. Therese the Little Flower. It's such a lovely sweet little novena and she has never failed me! As the week of the picnic was upon us, I watched the weather treaten from 20% to 30% to 40% chance of thunderstorms. We were due to have about 100 people to our home so nice weather would be... umm...nice! It was such a lovely surprise when my MIL and SIL brought over a lovely vase full of beautiful ROSES! The day of the picnic brought lovely weather, a bit breezy but a few bricks on the tables kept the table coverings in place! Thank you St. Therese the Little Flower!

Our guest of honor of course was our priest! Such a blessing to have a priest to our home.

This was only a short line of all the desserts! Notice Rosie is in line piling her plate with her *dinner* of brownies and cookies galore!

More desserts and many delicious side dishes to go with the Hoffman Hotdogs and Coneys (Red Hots and White Hots)... well, the hostess was from upstate NY, what can you expect!

We placed the snackies, condiments and plasticware outside along with the drinks to keep the buffet line moving. Worked well as far as I could tell!

Those of you who are familiar with Sam's "Flintstone mobile" will see that it is not only for blazing through the snow. The big boys at the picnic gave many rides to the smaller folk! Is there anything cuter than that?

The littler folk also broke a pinata... of course 1/2 the little children had left before I remembered the poor little horsie!

Just a sampling of the 15 cars (mostly vans!) at the picnic.

I have to say I actually did have a lovely time!