This morning as I was helping out in kids chapel, all the kids were asked to draw a picture of their family, the pictures would be used for tonight’s theme dinner, “Family Reunion”. I decided to draw one of my own, in one corner I drew a pic of my true family, in MD, then in the other corner I drew my staff family (all the kids kept saying “you have a big family!” which, turns out, is very true ;-) then, later back in the kitch, we were trying to figure out what we as a staff would dress up as for the theme dinner. We always try to get into the theme dinners as much as possible, the campers always like it, but today’s theme was “Family Reunion” and we were having a hard time trying to figure out what to dress up as. So while we were trying to come up with ideas, I showed everyone my picture, and someone suggested we create a stereotypical family! it wasn’t long before we had thirty some typical family roles planned out and assigned to each staff member. Our family tree is as follows…..
Staff Family:
Steve – Grandpa, had a cane, had pockets full of candy for everyone
Cora – Grandma, it was her day off so she didn’t have to get too much into her role, but she was very convincing for the moments that she was!
Mark – Grandpa, Vietnam war vet, full of nondescript stories and disappointment in the world today “you kids don’t even know” he’d mutter with a disappointed shake of the head.
Breezy – Grandma, knitting needles, gray hair, hard of hearing,
Steve and Cora’s family:
Janna – nurturing, single aunt, practically a second mother to Abigail’s children. Also a book worm
Abigail – typical 50’s style mother, patient with all, proud of her kids, wardrobe complete with pearl necklace.
Shelby – aka, Aunt Patsy. Cant even begin to describe this woman…she was the obnoxious, insane aunt, pinched everyone cheeks, talked loud and vulgar, chewed gum, wore the brightest, most obnoxious outfit, had us laughing harder than we have all summer.
Andy – aka Uncle Rico, husband of Aunt Patsy. Just about the same as the above description…they were a perfect match…these two did not have kids, this is a blessing to those unborn children as they would not have been able to handle such parents, but Patsy and Rico had plenty to say about the way Abigail and Michael were raising their children.
Mark and Breezy’s family:
Michael – your typical 50’s style father, wore a suit and tie, had plenty of time for his many kids, always a little too happy, albeit rather weary.
Jordan – aka Uncle Jesse, as in the guy on the show Full House…basically the same guy, slicked back hair, and really cool.
Lisa – married to Uncle Jesse
Anderson – Uncle Jesse and Lisa’s son, the cool cousin, basically a lot like his father, only cooler
Teirra – daughter of Jesse and Lisa, the family historian (aka, she drew up our family tree)
Michael and Abigail’s family:
Trevor – the oldest son, athletic, protective, a bit bossy, but a cool big brother, one we could all look up to.
Kara – the oldest daughter, a dramatic teen with a bad news boy friend. She was snotty to our parents and threatened to move in with Aunt Patsy, except Uncle Rico would hear nothing of it.
Drew – the nerdy teen, interested in anything electronic.
Katie – the moody teen, didn’t talk much, glared at everyone, threatened to beat us up. (actually she was having a hard time not laughing the whole time!)
Jessica M – the awkward teen, didn’t quite know here place in life, just turned 13 and thought she was an adult.
Tyler – tween boy, just entering puberty, voice has started cracking and he was very shy and sensitive.
Ashley (me!) – tween girl…I was 10 years old as I told everyone, and I was going to girls camp next year! And I just loved my family so, so much and I let them all know. And my friends had a lot of drama, (Sally wasn’t talking to Jessica again! ) and I was just extremely annoying and happy when my older sibs weren’t teasing me, and when they were I told on them, and, no offence, but I had the time of my life! I think I should just be ten forever!
Jeremy – 4th grade boy, played sports, tried to be cool like his big bro Trevor.
Elyse and Jessica H – our set of twins, they dressed alike and did everything together and were rather mischievous. They were eight years old.
Evan – he was four, and he acted it!
Brittany – the baby of the family, carried around her lamby and hugged everyone and told them all she loved them, and cried sometimes.
And finally, Alana – our favorite babysitter!!!
This is our family, and everyone played their role perfectly! We entered our roles about an hour before dinner, while we were getting ready and all that. The kitch was chaos of all the kids “fighting” and Mother Abigail trying to keep the peace and Aunt Patsy just creating more noise. The cooks kept shaking their heads at our antics, “I hope my family is exactly like this!” I declared at one point, “I hope my family is NOTHING like this!” Lisa retorted vehemently.
Then the men showed up and it was everything you might imagine of a chaotic family reunion with Americas most obnoxious family. everyone would be in their role, then turn away laughing, it was the best ever!
I filmed a few videos, declaring that I was making a documentary of our family for school, I interviewed all the women as we ate in the kitch, then I went and interviewed the men at their table (but I had to go fast because Mommy came out and made me go back and leave them alone).
Then, Bruce, the Family Camp director, who had noticed that we had created a family, asked us to come out and introduce ourselves in character to the campers. So, we lined up and introduced our family (I filmed that too).
After dinner, we kept up the charade throughout clean up, after which we went outside for a family portrait. Which, of course, turned out to be your stereotypical bad family portrait, complete with teens glaring at the camera, baby’s crying, and grandpa blowing his nose.
I am very proud of my staff family, they may be a bit odd, and maybe they embarrass me sometimes, and perhaps not many, if any, people understand them, but I love them forever.
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