9B: #30shorts, Family Festivus, We Put the FU in Family FUnctions

Today we had our Family Festivus party. With kids living away at college and varying schedules today was the day everyone was available to celebrate, and I do mean everyone. Between me, my

sister and my brother we have 11 children and 5 of them married and have children of their own ranging in ages from 18 years old to 6 months.

The remaining 6 are watching from the sidelines while they embark on careers or complete their college educations.

We always take a picture of all the cousins, spouses and the little ones.

And then we take a shot called the ‘sleigh ride’ picture of my sister & brother and me.

Here’s the before…like 55 years before. Our Mom loved this picture.

I tried not to kiss anyone, since I’ve been sick, but some of the little ones are such cuddle bugs, it’s hard to resist.

We are noisy and we are loud. There are always several conversations, going on between several groups of 2 or 3 people simultaneously, and all sitting at the same table, all gathered in one room, although there are several empty rooms that would accommodate any conversation. I think we kind of dwell on all that noise and gather some energy from it. It would be wise to not come to these functions with a brewing headache because it will be full blown before you know it.

For the last two years we’ve played Family Feud. Once the teams have been selected, we go over the rules. The rules seem more complicated than they need to be, but we play it anyway. It usually takes about a half hour before we iron out just what rules we will be playing by. My husband likes to play the Richard Dawson type emcee, We think he has the most fun because he holds all the answers.

After another half hour of playing, or at least trying to play a game with fluctuating rules, I found my team of seven members had dwindled down to 2, me and my nephew Bob. There were a few boisterous disagreements…okay, the ‘F’ bomb got thrown around, more than once, but overall, we believed we were having fun.

When it was time to go home, I waved and wished them all a happy Festivus, and looked forward to next year’s Festivus and another round of Family FeUd.