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.

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.

Free Advent Calendar

via ohdeedoh

Here is a free and printable advent calendar here at mibo.  Pretty cost effective if you ask me.

Christmas Lights

We had a little warm weather a couple of weekends ago and up went the Christmas lights.  We just turned them on this weekend and my son was fascinated and kept pointing to them.  The lights peaking out from over our side porch is actually lights on the sailboat that we have in our backyard.  It gives me a little Christmas cheer every time we come home.  No comment about the fact that we have a sailboat in the back yard.

One of my favorite traditions is to drive around and look at Christmas lights.  Growing up in Florida, people really went all out to decorate because we always had warm weather to do the decorating.  There were some Christmases that my parents and I would drive around once a week to look in different neighborhoods.  Another of my favorite memories is riding in my Aunt's van with a bunch of my cousins looking at an especially large display of lights while visiting my grandparents.

Advent Calendars

via Target

Today is December 1st and it's time to get out your advent calendar to start opening treats each day until Christmas.  My mom always filled a calendar of boxes with treats for me as a kid and as soon as my son is old enough, I will do the same for him.  There are so many more options than just the chocolate or paper calendars and you can really get creative and fun with this special tradition!

Christmas Cards

Mailed out for Christmas 2007

It has been a Christmas tradition of mine to create my own Christmas cards to mail out every year.  I have been doing them for about 8 years now.  Some of them were hand created and others computer created.  Last year I bought cards to mail because I had a two month old baby and couldn't find the time to be creative while he napped.  This year I created cards again using a program online at SeeHere.com.  It was not really from scratch like I used to create them, but the site does let you pull the elements on that you want to use and move them around.  It, also, let's you use photos and crop and manipulate them.

The best part was that I ordered 50 prints for free, using a special offer good through Nov. 30th. from Freebies 4 Mom.  Click here if you want to use the deal.

Christmas Albums

via Amazon  

I have a personal tradition every year of buying one Christmas CD to add to my collection.  I think I'm going to buy Carpenter's "Christmas Portrait" this year.  You can preview it here.

Here are some of my favorite Christmas albums:

• Ella Fitzgerald Christmas 
• Bing Crosby "White Christmas"
• The Beach Boys "Ultimate Christmas Collection"
• Nat King Cole "The Christmas Song"
• "A Charlie Brown Christmas"
• Frank Sinatra "A Jolly Christmas from Frank Sinatra"

Do you have any favorite albums that I should consider?

Christmas Jar

This is a new tradition that I want to start this year that I saw on Mom Advice.

1. Find any jar or vase and decorate it..
2. On pieces of wrapping paper, create an activity to do each day and tuck it inside of the jar.
3. On December 1st, begin the ritual of drawing from the jar and completing the activity for the day.

A few ideas for activities:

• Make cookies for a neighbor
• Shop for items to be donated to a Food Pantry
• Have a board game night
• Watch a Christmas movie
• Drive around looking at lights

Ornamental Tradition

Wedgwood Vera Wang 2008 Baby's First Christmas Ornament- buy here

As a child, my mom always bought an ornament for me every year for Christmas.  It was fun to decorate the tree and look at each ornament with the dates on them and the tree began to fill up as the years progressed.  The funny thing is that I have a few Snow White ornaments because pickings were slim back then.  It was always a trick,as I got older, to find an ornament relevant to what I had been doing that year.

A couple of years ago my mother-in-law gave me a box of my husband's annual ornaments, but I haven't been doing anything with his ornaments or mine.

I bought my son his first ornament last year (pictured above).  I look forward to finding him an ornament this year, too.  I think I am going to start a new tradtion that I will pull out the ornaments from my box and my husband's box that correspond with our son't age.  We can showcase all three ornaments together!

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.