Family Reunion Extravaganza (and T-Shirts)

My husband's family had a reunion over the Fourth of July weekend and we hosted it this year.  It is appropriately named the "Great Witte Gathering" and meets every other year in different locales across the Midwest.

Nathan and I hosted it this year and had a whopping 45 people hanging out and relaxing for the 3-day weekend.  For the past few reunions I have been lucky enough to design the shirts for this event.

I always have a lot of fun coming up with a theme.  This year was pretty easy as the colors were patriotic and I drew popcorn using AutoCAD and Photoshop to convey the "Pop into Valpo" theme.  As you may not know, we live in Valparaiso, Indiana which was home to Orville Redenbacher and still hosts the annual Popcornfest and Parade.  It wasn't a big leap to utilize that idea for the reunion!


A few things that are a must for our reunion is a group photo in which we were our reunion t-shirt. We take many photos of this group shot as the little ones tend to fidget.

GWG 2011

We, also, have a a skit night at every reunion.  Every family puts together a little performance that may involve a song, poem, play, or whatever.  They usually involve a bit of humor, too, and every gets a kick out of it.  Our skit was a reading and performance rendition of "An Ordinary Day" by Ken Nesbitt.  We had masks and props to act out what was happening in the poem.  Quick, easy, and a bit silly, so it fit us perfectly.

Another addition to this reunion was a home made Family Feud game.  (Seen below).  Each  family had, previously, filled out answers to our survey questions that were general, Bible, or family related and we compiled them into the top answers for our game.  Each team/family participated  in different rounds until the top teams faced off.  The winning team won a giant bag of gummi bears from a local candy company.

We had a great turn out this year with only 3 people not being able to attend.  It's great to reconnect with family that lives far away and see how we've grown over the years.

Things to Do

Things are looking to be a bit less hectic this weekend and snow is on the ground.

A while ago Arthur Frommer showcased an interesting website on his blog called Goby.  It's an online source to find local activities and events.  I just browsed the site to see if my little town made it on the site, and it did!  I discovered that there are a few plays, sporting events, and a Chocolate Festival nearby.  What a great way to stave off boredom.  You can search your own town here.

A Sailboat with a Heart of Gold

Our Sailboat (in our backyard) with a Name!

We officially named our sailboat last night and, although there wasn't any champagne or fancy ribbons to cut, the celebration voyage is tomorrow on a small lake in Northwest Indiana.

I designed the vinyl decal in AutoCAD and based it on the spaceship from Douglas Adam's "A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy".  The flower pot goes along with the story.  A company, downstairs from my office, can make any sign I want and he charged me only $10 to create this for me.  It should be weather proof and last a long time.  I love it!

Birthday Party- Fall Theme

My son just turned 18 months old, but I never did share some of the things I made for his 1st Birthday party, because I started this blog after the party.  I thought I would share a couple of things now.

I created this invitation using Adobe Photoshop and had it printed at Walgreens for next to nothing.  It fit neatly in a standard invitation envelope.

Wilton has this cupcake shaped cake form that I used to create my son's cake.  I whipped up my own blue icing and decorated with lollipop sail boats that ended up being too heavy to sit on the cake.  You can by the cake form here.

You can see a fall theme with the colors and I took advantage of my son's October birth date to gather a number o fpumpkins and gourds to decorate the party.  We enjoyed them for weeks and the house stayed festive until Thanksgiving.  I couldn't believe some of the gourds could stay fresh for so long!

I saw this crepe paper streamer idea at My Paper Crane.  The idea was to sew the streamers together and create a ruched look.  Turns a $1 streamer into a really nice looking decoration.  I made yard after yard and it took me about an hour to make all of them.  I added a few craft paper  garlands as well that were my own creation.

Finally, I bought cheap paper lanterns at the Paper Lantern Store to decorate our new deck outside, but the foul weather changed my plans and we quickly strung them up over the buffet table.

Paper Cup Labels

Have you noticed that I changed the design of my blog a little bit?  I decided to give it a bit more punch.

via the kitchn

The kitchn on Apartment Therapy had a little post about the many uses of cups for parties.  They have this great link to a free and downloadable paper cup label.  I think you should try it out!

It's a Shower!

My Mother-in-Law hosted a bridal shower this last weekend and I helped with a few tidbits.  We dined at Club Soda in Fort Wayne, Indiana and enjoyed a scrumptious meal with a few cocktails.  We were surprised with a couple of free desserts at the end of the meal.

Place Holders

I used the sidewalk chalk eggs that didn't quite work to hold each name tag for seating assignments.  To do this I simply cut a slit in the top of a half and egg with a serated knife.  I then created each name card using the same style that I had used for the invitations shown here.  Since we had this party on the day before Easter we took advantage of the holiday and had little ceramic bunny/ egg holders by each setting.

Club Soda

Bride-to-Be (Sarah) with her Grandma

The Party-goers!

We had a blast at this party and I felt like it was a nice and relaxing way to celebrate with an intimate group of girls.  Little preparation required with a lot of atmosphere as live jazz music started on the floor below us at around 9:00.

Favorite Holiday Movies

Here is a list of my favorite Holiday movies in no particular order:

• White Christmas-  You can't complain about Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, and big blue feathers.
• Holiday Inn-  Bing Crosby is great when he's grumpy!
• Christmas in Connecticut-  This movie makes me hungry.
• Meet Me in St. Louis-  Nothing says Christmas like a ghoulish bonfire.
• Scrooged-  The "Ghost of Christmas Past" can be pretty vicious.
• The Family Stone-  So sweet, sad, and funny all at the same time.
• It's a Wonderful Life-  I cry every time George gets hit by the Drug Store owner.  Every time.
• Elf-  Mmm, spaghetti and candy for breakfast.

I have a bit of an obsession to watch all of these movies every year.

Giving Week & Holiday Music

 I just found the AccuHolidays website yesterday and they have great options for listening to Christmas music online.  They have a number of stations to choose from or you can create your own list of artists that you can listen to.  Click the photo to go to their website.

The Holiday Lite is a tried and true Chicago station that plays a mix of new and old Christmas music.  Click the photo above to go to their website and listen to the live radio feed.

Here's my To Do List this week:
Giving Week
Nov 15- 21

• Put Christmas cards together
• Do a quick declutter of home
• Verify gifts purchased up to this point
• Schedule boarding for animals for Christmas
• Begin making gifts
• Begin making decorations
• Purchase needed Holiday Clothing
• Purchase any needed items for gift crafts
•  Purchase any needed items for decorating crafts

Best Children's Book

THE LION AND THE MOUSE
Illustrated by Jerry Pinkney.  Little, Brown. $16.99. 

via New York Times

The New York Times has released there 2009 Holiday Gift Guide here.  One of their categories is "Best Illustrated Children’s Books of 2009" and it includes the above book, which I've been hearing about for a few months now.  I think that might be my book purchase for one of my son's and it's only $9.93 at Amazon.

I was a big fan of Aesop's fables as a kid and really enjoyed reading my illustrated book that has since gone missing.  I would love to pass on my joy for these stories to my son.

Created for You- Christmas TV Schedule

I have created a Christmas TV Schedule that you can access at all times by clicking the link at the top right with with same name.  Call me crazy, but I create this list every year.  I love Christmas specials and movies and I get disappointed if I miss one.  I decided to share my list this year, but be warned as the times are listed for the Central Time Zone for my convenience.

The schedule is pretty full as I am including TV sitcoms and Made-for-TV Movies as I find them.  I don't watch Lifetime movies, but maybe you do.  I'm including them this year just to make the list as complete as possible, but that may change next year.

This schedule will be updated on a weekly basis as I get more information and as dates pass.