Ricks boys

Hi, here are my boys. (Sorry about the annoying rosy tint to the picture--my camera is dying a slow and pink death.)

salutations

Gwendolyn, Casper, and Linus

We thought it might be worthwhile to ask everyone to post a recent picture of their families (particularly the children), so that the cousins can be reminded of their friends and given a sense of who to expect at the reunion. This would be really useful for my bunch, anyway, who have been talking about the games they played with their cousins last year (without being able to remember exactly who they were).

victuals

Laura brought up the question of whether we could plan more meals together during the reunion. Like her, I thought that our dinners last year were a highlight. I enjoyed sharing recipes and styles of eating; I guess I'm a believer in the ritual of sharing food. I suppose that we will be occupied on Friday, but see no reason that we couldn't arrange formal meals (certainly lunch and dinner) on Saturday and Sunday (how late will you be staying in Boise, Laura?) -- as long as most of us can congregate at the rental house.

What does everyone else think? Should I try to make a schedule? Andrea, you mentioned being willing to help with a meal on Saturday -- would you prefer to continue our collaboration, or would you rather take the lead at a later time? Again, I think that we will try to keep things informal and quick -- but those are often the kinds of recipes that are most in demand in our house.

LCB

Most of you know that the Samuelson Ladies (by name and by blood) have been doing a Long- Distance Craft Bonanza. We have decided to do an exchange at this years reunion. Maybe we could incorporate this exchange into the auction.
For those who haven't made/bought their items yet could make/buy an extra one for sale at the auction.

reunion logistics

When I called Dad last night, he and Mom wanted to discuss some of their thoughts about the reunion. I want to nominate our collaborative blog, Ginormous Turnip (tm Jeff), as a discussion space. I think that the easiest way to share our ideas and preferences about the weekend will be to make individual posts for specific questions and topics, then each of us can respond to those issues in the comments, or raise new issues by writing new posts.

Mom and Dad realize that with everything involved in Steve and Shawna’s wedding, and with the difficulties attendant upon each of our families living out of suitcases for the weekend, we are going to have to be more flexible than at last year’s reunion. Keeping our plans minimal and our expectations limber will help to ensure that we all enjoy our time together. Anyway, we’ll be best able to preserve time for talk and play if we keep things informal.

That said, Dad feels really strongly that we keep some continuity from last year’s reunion. What is important to you to see in this year's reunion?

auction

The auction seems to be the central thing that Dad, in particular, would like to see us attempt. I’m sure that it will be less ambitious than before, but I’d like to suggest that we approach it more or less the same way, though on a smaller scale. We should take some time to talk about logistics: the only practical time for both auctions seems to be the afternoon of July 4, but that’s open to debate.

Should we plan on an auction in which we lower our expectations, but still try to share what we can? Andrea just sent me the suggestion that we take some time to traipse around Boise, going to thrift shops and trying to find auction items. This sounds like great fun, if a little risky (at least with my family’s schedule, I’m not sure that we’re going to be able to fit thrifting into the time we’ll have), but there’s no reason to insist that all (or even most) of the items in the auction be homemade. We understand that there are other obligations which will take precedence this year (you know, moving, having babies, getting married, buying houses), and I suggest that we should just try to have a few fun things to give, wherever they come from. I’ll bring the money, Dad will bring the paddles, and I hope that Steve will bring his auctioneer’s patter.

children's auction

(Not an auction of children)

The kids’ “auction” was a real hit, I thought, and I’d like to repeat it. If you find any interesting candies or little toys that you can bring for the bags, please do; we’ll probably have to search Boise, land of dollar stores, for the majority of the stuff. Since we won’t have the luxury of putting kids to sleep before we have the adult auction, one possible fringe benefit of having the kids enjoying their bags is that it may work to buy time for us to have the adult auction. (As I see it, since we will probably have to hold the auctions at the rental house for reasons of space and timing, we’ll need to find something for the young ones to do while we wheel and deal.) If they are looking through their bags, it may provide us at least some beginning time for our auction.

I had another thought, actually. A week ago, Jeffrey sent me this fun link . It describes a family’s efforts at making trading/playing cards which depict monsters or other invented creatures. After the members of the family draw pictures of beasts on their cards (and name them), they shuffle, pick, and exchange them. I thought that it might be fun to have the kids involved with something like this – if we have them draw the cards on Friday or Saturday before the auction, we could put cards in the bags and then allow the children to look at and swap them while we are auctioning. I wonder whether someone whose boys are already into trading cards (Jill and Will, do I understand that this may apply to your family?) could weigh in on the possibilities here – and the things that might raise interest in such a project. Let me know what you think; if there is approval for this idea, I could cut some paper for the cards before we come.