Family Reunion

This weekend we had a family reunion. It was the anniversary of my late grandmother's birthday. Most of my dad's sibling and a few of the cousins got together at my Aunt's ranch retreat a few hours from where I live. We had so much fun! We sat around the campfire and told stories and chatted and laughed. My cousin had her twins that I hadn't yet met. The Wood Artist and I went exploring and found an old stagecoach stop with buildings still intact. This old car was sitting beside an old barn and I couldn't resist "taking it for a spin"! Hey, it made me feel better about my 300,000+ miles van! :)

Then my entire family played a tournament of Norwegian Golf. The idea was that each sub-family would play for a trophy. The winning family gets to keep the trophy until the next reunion when another tournament will be played.

The trophy is a family keepsake from Grandma. It has a doghouse and five little dogs. Each dog has one of the sibling's names and someone is in the "doghouse" whenever someone else wishes them to be. This time it was the Alaskan Uncle who wasn't there to defend himself!

As the tournament got underway, a great spirit of family togetherness arose! NOT!!! There proceeded to be such competition that it was downright unseemly! There was heckling, harassment, screeching, tantrums, and shameless attempts to distract, unnerve, and intimidate the players! As for me, I'm sports' challenged, so I disqualified almost immediately, but then I could freely join in the foray! It came down to quite a showdown between my mother, Granny Flash, and my cousin. As the game ventured into sudden-death-overtime, the crowd surged with energy and laughter. In the end, the losing siblings were forced to stand in the rain and bow while presenting the trophy to the winning sibling who was standing on a sheltered step. What a hoot!