Cousin Reunion 2016

Twenty four hours after hosting Friendsgiving my parents arrived in Texas. More specifically on my doorstep. And we got to work planning and preparing for my extended family to arrive. Because this was my year to host my family's ANNUAL COUSIN REUNION!!! And even though I live at the end of the earth (I kid, I kid...) we had a good turn out. In addition to my parents I had three aunts, two uncles, and four cousins (plus spouses and kids) attend the reunion. There were 31 people and 1 dog.  These people came from all over. Mexico City, Montana, Minnesota and Wisconsin. It was no easy feat for them to travel to my house so I wanted to make sure it was worth their effort. 

A little cousin reunion history. They started back in 2004. My eldest cousin (on my mom's side of the family) planned the first one. And it has been passed down cousin by cousin ever since. Each cousin that plans the reunion gets to choose the date and location. Traditionally they are in the summer. However summer here is borderline miserable so we opted for fall. And thankfully it felt nice and summer like! We took full advantage of the weather and spent most our time outside...

Thanksgiving day we ate a large breakfast, stuck the turkeys in the oven and then we headed to the beach. Where we played for nearly five hours!

Boogie Boarding on November 24th!

And then we headed back to my house to enjoy our traditional Thanksgiving meal. Thankfully we had had the foresight to prepare all the side dishes the night before so all we had to to do was stick them in the oven when we got back from the beach, shower off all the salt and sand and ENJOY!  (Minus one little *mishap where one of the turkeys tried to slip off the counter our plan worked wonderfully)

We ate almost all of our meals outdoors, including Thanksgiving dinner!

White Elephant gifts. Some people were happy with their gifts and some were NOT.

It was a FABULOUS week! I absolutely loved having family in town and I felt so honored that they would travel so far to see ME....well and the beach:) And I really couldn't have pulled off the reunion without them. (Especially because Joe was working nights and sleeping during the day...at another resident's apartment.) Sure I planned the meals, bought the groceries and played tour guide. But they were the workers. I swear I never cooked a single meal all week. Every single time it was time for a meal I had multiple volunteers to cook. It was a real team effort! I couldn't ask for a better family. I mean we somehow managed to cram 14 children and 6 adults in my house with different nap and bedtime schedules and HAVE FUN! I'd call that a success.


*When that turkey tried to slip off the counter a bunch of the drippings splashed onto the kitchen floor. Instead of dealing with it immediately I took a rag towel and threw it over top of the spill. That towel remained on the floor for most of the evening. Hours later as we were cleaning up Joe asked about the towel (he was asleep at the time of the incident). When he lifted up the towel he discovered there was turkey parts under it...the neck and heart! And much to my shock, my aunt (who shall remain nameless) picked up the heart and ATE IT!!!! Best Thanksgiving moment ever. Boogie boarding was a close second.