holiday hoopla 2013

It's been a full season of crazy here. We take our holiday celebrating seriously in illinois. It was an especially fun year, I think with being gone for a few months overseas, I appreciated being home more. Thankful for family who loves to be together and who sees the hope in Christmas. 

One of our quirky traditions....the lost art of taffy pulling. This is definitely a community event, where everyone gets involved.  We are not quite sure where it comes from, perhaps the old german heritage....

Step one: clean hands....and wash the soap off. no one wants to eat soap. 

Step two: apply copious amounts of butter and vanilla as to not completely lose your epidermis. 

Step three: try to get the burning hot candy off of the plate without singeing your hands. grandmas and farmers have tough hands. 

Step four: begin the delicate, beautiful dance of the taffy....we like to think it is similar to the dance of the sugar plum fairy. 

Step five: place the taffy on a table in a cool area so it hardens. 

Step six: eat as much as you can without throwing up. kendall won the award this year. 

happy january! 

Dance With Me Dorothy

This little lady turned 80 last spring, and decided she wanted a party by getting as many of her family together as she possibly could. So we all piled into our cars, planes, and a huge van called "the white dove" and spent the weekend at a school turned hotel, which was as strange as it sounds. 

To say that we laugh a lot when we get together is an understatement. I attribute much of this to this generation, dorothy's kids and spouses (who call themselves the outlaws instead of the in-laws). They are often much more the instigators than their children. 

During most of our family events, we play some sort of stupid game. There is much pressure to be a good sport, and everyone knows they will get mocked if they don't participate. So, everyone usually just goes along with it. (Let's just say blindfolded leap frog is harder than it sounds!)

This time, I accomplished one of my long-time goals: playing Human Battleship. Each team obediently formed "boats" of 2-5 people, and sat still as water balloons were launched over the wall at their heads. 

 

Not surprisingly, their patience wore thin and anarchy soon broke out and an all-out assault began. I'll still call it a success, although I want to try it some time with ketchup or red jello. Take it up a notch, you know? 

But moving on, we soon began our next activity of throwing cheese puffs....

....onto humans dressed as...well I am not sure, exactly. But I told you these people were good sports. 

And now for the big finish....dorothy said she wanted a show, so a show she got. The grand-men dolled up their bellies and performed a whistling song. Absurd? yes. Entertaining? Absolutely. 

After a small kick-line by the granddaughters, we busted out this song by the creepy kids' group, The Wiggles. A few of my cousins are wizards at finding just the right tune for the occasion. 

And Dorothy did dance with us, because she is the queen of crazy. Although she did have a bit of trouble walking up the stairs because she said she was laughing too hard. 

 

If I'm doing anything close to this when I turn 80, it will be a good life. We love you gram! 

Keepin' It Rural

It has been a full month of crazy fun here "somewhere in the middle," as my california friends call it. People always wonder what we do in the country to amuse ourselves, and the simple answer is we make our own entertainment. Much of that entertainment is found in making fun of each other and making up parties for no reason.

We like to think that we were some of the original founders of the farm to table movement. Case in point; here are some pictures from a classy event we have dubbed "The Corn Feed." A few years ago we started an annual party which is essentially a corn eating contest. 

Most of the contestants quit after a few ears, and the competitive boys usually duke it out for the victory. Here are this year's top three finishers....I'm sorry to say they consumed almost 30 ears of corn between the three of them. It was obscene. They were literally running into the field to get more corn. 

The other great thing about life at home is getting to hang out with my family. They are genuinely some of my favorite humans, and I'm not making that up to try and get more of the inheritance. I know that so many people don't have the privilege of actually wanting to spend time with their kin. 

"Everybody has to leave, everybody has to leave their home and come back so they can love it again for all new reasons." - Donald Miller, Through Painted Deserts 

Sweet Home Illinois

For the past few weeks, I have been nestled back into fountain creek township, a place where no one is quite sure when the post office is open and buying a flash drive requires a twenty mile trip. But it's home, and I love it, despite it's quirks. I love the simplicity of the days here, picking green beans and jumping in the lake. But most of all I love the people, the loyal, hilarious, interesting people that have made my life so full. 

Here's a few snapshots of a few of these crazy souls from a recent cookout. 

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