The funeral went well. As far as funerals go. It was sad but a lovely service. And a nice celebration of my grandmother's life. Her friends from the retirement village were there and it was also sad to see them farewelling their friend.. And there were people there we hadn't seen for many years.
After the service we had a get together/lunch at the hotel my parents and aunty and uncle were staying at. It was so nice to catch up with cousins and friends and relatives we hadn't seen in a while.
I decided to take my camera. Wasn't sure if it was appropriate to have a camera there but I am glad I did as I had the opportunity at the end of the day to take some nice family shots!
So, 
this will be boring for my scrapping readers so bear with me as I wanted to share these pics with my family and those friends who know or know of these people:O)))
This is my sister Debbie and I and the Rafanello girls. We grew up with these girls. They were my grandmother's neighbours for as long as I can remember and their parents still live in the same house next to where my grandmother lived. But her house is long gone. She moved into a retirement village 5 years ago and her little house was demolished to make way for a monstrous cement rendered mansion!
Seeing these three girls, Gai, Donna and Maria brought back so many memories. They felt so familiar and it was if there hadn't been a passage of time at all. We have a little story in our house (and my sister's house) about Maria that we always use on the kids at Christmas time. You see, one Christmas, Maria was really naughty. I was about 7 and she was three years older. Her mother threatened her that Santa wouldn't come if she was naughty, as mother's do!
Well, Maria must have been REALLY naughty because Santa didn't come that year! I remember being at my grandmother's house and running into Maria's house Christmas morning to see what the girls got. Maria got NOTHING! Zilch! Zero!! Nothing! As a 7 year old I was HORRIFIED. So I use that story on my kids. I'm sure they think I have made it up and that Maria doesn't exist. So it was quite satisfying to introduce Maria to Brandt (Capri & Jamison didn't come with us to Sydney) and say..SEE SHE IS REAL!
And these are my cousins from my dad's side. There's not many of us. Glen is the one who was recently married on the Gold Coast at Versace. I will FINALLY share his wedding pics actually as Glen and his beautiful new wife Mary gave their permission for me to! In fact Glen said he has been reading my blog so hi to my cous!
But I will save the wedding pics for my next post.
Next to me at the back is Louise, Glen's sister(she scrapbooks!) and lastly, the other lady next to my sister is another cousin Leanne who all of us hadn't seen for many years. As you can see Leanne didn't get the tall gene we all got!
Another photo of us all - with the Rafanello girls. {Like the backdrop! It was a huge aerial photo/poster of Sydney which was nicer than standing in front of a brick wall!}
And finally, a photo of my sister Debbie and I - just because I like it and there are very few of the two of us together!
