Thanksgiving Big Family Melee

Well, my whole family showed up, although some members (nieces, nephews, brother in law) headed back to Chicago early because of work. The general consensus is that it was fun.

My family plays games, we sing songs and we drink. We have certain traditions when we get together, like Ping Pong tournaments, Moriarity Are You There?, Capture the Flag or Tag outside in the Woods....we are quite competitive and we did some of the usual games. We often play the dictionary game but this year I borrowed from gmcountrymama's version for the Thanksgiving meal. My younger sister and I, with our kids gave each person a word at dinner time. They had to use the word at least two times an hour. We thought that this game might cut most of the "crap" conversation that goes on, however the words proved hard to use. Then we just said you had to use it in a sentence as to why you were thankful. That was most amusing.

While the last minute touches were being put on dinner we had our annual ping pong tournament. Above is a picture of the team that won, my older sister is the one on the right. I think they are holding a trophy, but I don't think they took the trophy home because it is one of my son's most valued possessions, at least it was when my son was twelve. The young man in the picture is my nephew Matt. It seems that he is always part of a winning team. He has been winning for at least the last three tournaments. He was partnered with my other sister for those. My sisters have no talent, trust me.

We did have a rousing game of Group Tag in the pine trees. The branches touch the ground and the trees are pretty tall so the kids were jumping from tree to tree. The trees are so close together that if you fall you can grab onto another tree. It is kid heaven and we are all kids at heart around here.

For the most part we sat around a talked. Lots of good conversations. Well worth the effort.