Reunion

We had another family reunion. This time it was my husband's mother's side of the family. We party hard at this one. It starts with a sleepover in tents on Friday night (for those who want) and continues through until Sunday breakfast over a campfire. I, for one, and happy that I have no young children to sleep out in a tent and I live close enough to be able to go home and sleep in my own bed. Sleeping in a tent is not my favorite activity. I feel that camping is the only vacation where you have to work your butt off just to eat and sleep. I am a hotel girl -- gotta love hot water and a shower. Anyway, we had a blast. We always have great food that everyone likes -- they cook many many chickens on the fire and my husband make the best barbecue ever. We ladies all bring side dishes and desserts.

We did have a couple of mishaps this time, however. One was hot oil knocked off the campfire that spilled into one of the younger men's boot. It was scary and potentially horrible, but it managed to be manageable because we have two terrific Physician Assistant's in our family and they saved the guy a trip to the Med Express. He kept cold towels on his leg and foot and they called in a prescription for burn ointment. When we saw him on Sunday, his leg was pretty red, but only a couple of tiny blisters. He was very lucky. Praise the Lord for that.

The other thing was I fell down as I was leaving to go to church from the breakfast site. I was walking along and someone on the porch asked me a question, and instead of stopping to talk, I kept walking -- right into a hole and fell down. Apparently I cannot walk and talk at the same time. Quite a pride breaker. I am not light, as everyone can see, and I fell hard. My foot seems slightly twisted, but no swelling, so I think it is just the trauma. My arm feels like I have been doing push ups all day (which anyone who knows me can attest that couldn't have been the case). Other than that, I am fine. It was terribly embarrassing, but thankfully, no one was around with a camera or I would be in the slide show next year. Not a pretty sight.

Everything I wore all weekend smells like a campfire and the little kids were dirty and smelly also. They ran around so much that they were all exhausted. They get to stay up late and play outside in the dark with flashlights -- what could be more fun than that? A weekend without video games or television and if you played your cards right, you could have cupcakes and brownies for dinner. Just good old fashioned fun running with sticks and being left to play however they want. We had a great time and the kids enjoy this reunion very much. We all look forward to it every year.

A side note about the slide show disaster. I did corrupt my presentation, but managed, after many more hours of work, to put it back together. It was a job, but it was so worth it. I got some feedback about the length and some of the pictures, but it was two years' worth of cookouts, so it was bound to be long and probably seemed repetitive. I will take all comments under consideration for next year's slide show, and adjust it accordingly. All in all, it was well received. I loved it, of course.

A very satisfying family get together. I love my family. They are fun people.