The Wedding of Thomas and Breanna at Le Reve in Playa del Carmen, Mexico

First, I want to welcome Breanna into the family. Breanna and Thomas did an outstanding job of having an event which allowed the Clan to convene and reconnect. In addition to this part of the festivities, it allowed our Clan to meet and grow close the extended Macchia and Luccido families. The concept of a destination wedding took on a whole new meaning to me after this trip. Because of the setting that allowed part of the Clan to stay at Le Reve (which means "The Dream" in french) and the rest to stay at Sandos both groups were able to have a once in a lifetime adventure. One of my favorite moments of the week was this picture of the Cousins coming to the Rehersal Dinner. The spirit of this picture and the stories of the Cousins doing a great job of entertaining and of growing to know the Groomsmen and their Guest was very special to me. The purpose of this blog is to allow the extended Family to stay in touch and share insights with the rest of the group. Stay tuned for more insights to come.

 Thank you Sisters, Brother Kevin and the Cousins and their Special Guest/Members for being here and making this time in the life of our family special. Uncle John

Wedding Shower for Thomas and Breanna November 2010

The weekend of November 19-22, 2010 was a magical long weekend for our family. What made it special was the opportunity to Thomas and Breanna in town for Lars Anderson's wedding. As a part of that weekend we had Steve and Deborah Macchia here. They came in for a Wedding Shower on Sunday, November 21, 2010. The opportunity to spend this time with our new or soon to be new extended family was great. For those you did not make the Wedding Shower I am attaching a slide show for you to see what happened.

Welcome Breanna

The Gifford Family goes to New York to celebrate Breanna and Thomas getting engaged just prior to Breanna's birthday (April 11th). The family went to New York to celebrate this event and Claudia's Birthday. Here are some pictures from this great weekend together. This is the Giffords having dinner at Gusto's with Breanna and Katie, Breanna's sister. This occurred after Jay had surprised Claudia by flying from Oregon for her Birthday. Then the Family took a walking tour of the High Line on the West Side of New York. The highlight of the Weekend was the trip to Deer Park to visit with Breanna's home for an afternoon of fabulous food, great games, conversations and the opportunity to meet Breanna's extend family on her Mother's side. What a way to end to Great time together.

McCullough Christmas 2009 Video

As a part of the night I we had the fun of using Thomas' gift to his parents which was a flip video camera. We used it to create this video. We hope you enjoy this video as much as we had making it. Merry Christmas. I want to Thank Martha for the music on the video. This video was done by John Gifford with the assistance on associate camcorder Claudia Gifford.

Christmas 2009

This was a great evening of fun and fellowship with the family. It was fun being at Lee Ann's house. Thomas had given Claudia and I a new flip video. As a result I have prepared this video so we can remember how special that night and each night this group of characters have shared a meal together. The video will be attached soon.

Sometimes only in retrospect does the joy and special aspects of moments like this truly impact you. The joy of ten conversations going at the same time all at full force is special. The fact that the 8 nieces, nephews and spouse wanting to be together at dinner says volumes. Thank you family for the thrill of watching 34 of these rites of passage.

Thanksgiving Day in Pictures

Our family is thankful this year for the times we get together, share our stories, our lives. I am thankful David and Kaylen's wedding brought so many of us together to dance. I am thankful for all the universities that have and still are teaching our children. I am thankful for the research and the medicines that are making Dada feel better. I am thankful for new cities to visit as our children continue to branch out and discover new places. I am thankful that our God is a magnificent God.

Thanksgiving 2009

As is the tradition of the Connecting Dots Community we convened at one of the Sisters homes. This year it was at our house, the Gifford's. We really had a blast of eating and sharing this memorable time of the year. We missed David and Kaylen, Thomas and Jay. We had the pleasure of Katherine being here. When the Blog photographer, Martha, uploads her pictures we will add pictures. In the meantime we just noting the great time. It was wonderful to have Tom and Bettie here.