Five Things Reunion Planners Should Stop Doing Now

Aunt Mo shares her reunion  planning advise with  Reunion Workbook magazine readers.

Family Reunion Helper is proud to partner with Reunions Workbook magazine to bring you, “Five Thing Reunion Planners Should Stop Doing Now”. http://reunionsworkbook.com/five-things-reunion-planners-should-stop-doing-now/

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Until midnight tonight, you can purchase any family reunion theme package using our special ETSY coupon.

Follow the link below to receive $5.00 off any reunion theme package.

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The Ultimate Guide For Choosing a Family Reunion Theme

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Excite family members by using a reunion theme!

Are you looking for a way to excite family members and stir up interest about your next family reunion? Choosing a reunion theme is a great way to build excitement for upcoming and make it more likely family members will want to attend. clip_image004

A reunion invitation that invites you to a “Prehistoric” reunion for Brontosaurs burgers and a dinosaur egg hunt is more interesting than an invitation that invites you to a family reunion at “the park” for hamburgers.

A reunion theme helps to drive your reunion and with a little imagination food, games, activities, invitations and just about every other aspect of the reunion becomes a memorable event.

 

clip_image006Themes are inexpensive to implement and can inspire the creative side of many members in your family. Ask for their theme ideas, brainstorm and see what they come up with. Our best family reunion themes have come from brainstorming about themes. When a “Caveman”, Mafia and Oz theme were suggested in one of our brainstorming sessions I was kind of worried about what we would do but those themes are some of our favorites and have left us with some amazing reunion memories. Below are just a few family reunion themes that you may want to consider for your next family event.

All- Sport or Olympic Themed Reunion

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Get away from a boring sit around and just visit family reunion and jump into some action-packed fun with an All-sport or Olympic themed family reunion.

Activities- Soccer, volleyball, “whiffle” ball, Whacky miniature golf. Hold a cheerleader camp for the girls in your family and a sports camp for the boys. Go bowling or hold a family 5K. Give a family reunion MVP award.  For fun variations of these favorite sports- whiffle ball, soccer, bowling, swimming and volleyball plus lots of great ideas for your sports themed reunion.

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Food- Smoothies, “Breakfast of Champions” or “Long Jump” lunch hoagies.

Wear– Favorite team jerseys and t-shirt. Make a family t-shirt fashioned after a sports jersey.

Decorations: Pom, poms, pennants, sports balls, sports posters and plastic tablecloths.

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Olympic Reunion
Family History or Family Heritage Reunion

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If your family reunion is held near where the family originated, then schedule a trip to the old family homestead, church or cemetery. You can use this as an opportunity to share family memories, or go a step further and recruit the clan to clean up the ancestral cemetery plots or research the family in old church records. Hold your reunion at the family home if available or in the town where one of your ancestors were born, raised, married or buried. You can find more Family History ideas for your family reunion at wwwfamilyreunionhelper.com.

Food – Use an ancestor’s home country as theme for your meals. Use recipes from that county and set tables with a centerpiece of memorabilia and a picture of your ancestor. If your people come from Italy, serve a spaghetti dinner, from Mexico, serve tacos, enchiladas or tamales. Box lunches are a fun idea to share an old-time tradition.

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At our Family Heritage reunion, the girls in the family designed and decorated shoe boxes at home. We provided sandwich fixin’s, individual chip packages, fruit snacks and drink boxes along with cookies for dessert. The girls made lunches for two and put them in their box. We gave each box a number and the guys in the family each drew a number out of hat to determine which lunch they got to eat and which girl they ate lunch with. In a few instances, we had more girls than guys and so doubled up.

Activities – Play “classic” games at your reunion such as “3-legged race, gunny sack race, Annie I Over. Create a huge wall chart of your family so everyone can see how they are related. Take “old-time” photos and have everyone dress up. Make a family “time capsule”.

Dress – In the ethnic costume of your ancestors.

Ancestor Coloring Book- Making a heritage-coloring book about one of your ancestors is clip_image022a monumental task but it’s a wonderful way to make family history come alive for the little ones in your family. If you have an artist in the family, then designing a coloring book will be much easier for you. If you don’t have a talented artist in the family a great resource is http://store.doverpublications.com/by- subject-coloring-books.html.

 Family Heritage Reunion

Sun, Sand and Surf Reunion Theme

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If your reunion is in the summertime then it’s the perfect time for a Sun, Sand & Surf family reunion theme. Merge your beach reunion ideas with your Hawaiian reunion ideas for double the fun.

Invitations: Consider sending “Message in a Bottle” invitations to encourage family members to attend your family reunion or write out your reunion invitation on a beach ball with a permanent marker.

Activities: Sand candles and castles, sand art, volleyball variations and swimming pool games.

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Aquatic Obstacle Course: Use sprinklers, Slip-N-Slides, baby pools, limbo sticks and hula hoops to create an obstacle course for wet and wild reunion fun!

Food: Sub sandwiches, fruit trays, shish kabobs, fruit kabobs, gold fish crackers.

Decorations are easy for a beach themed family reunion. Use beach umbrellas, Beach towels, Beach balls, Paper party lanterns, Paper Palm trees and party lights on a string. travel posters, flowers, straw skirt table. Don’t forget to use pink flamingos in your decorating and be sure to include music from the Beach Boys to round out your reunion theme.

Beach Reunion

Wedding Anniversary or Significant Birthday Family Reunion Theme

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Planning a family reunion around an important wedding anniversary or milestone birthday makes for an easy but memorable family reunion.

Invitation – Put two photos of the honored couple on the invitation: their original wedding photo and a current photo.

Food – Finger foods and a “wedding” cake.

Activities- “When You Were My Age” A Celebration of Life’s Memorable Moments. This is such a fun program, fashioned after a Bill Cosby Show episode and was called, “When Mom Was my Age.” We have done variations of the program for 70th and 80th birthdays and 50th wedding anniversaries. Each time we do “When You Were My Age” everyone is a good sport and excited to be a part of the celebration. Everyone has a part on the program and an opportunity to highlight world events and significant family happenings throughout the life of your loved one. Download the “When You Were My Age” from Family Reunion Helper or write a “This Is Your Life” program for your reunion celebration.

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Decorations –Photos and other various memorabilia of the couple’s life together.

When You Were My Age

Three Ring Circus and Carnival Reunion Theme

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Begin your reunion with a circus parade and invite everyone to dress in fun costumes and march around your reunion site.

Food –Circus food- corn dogs, cotton candy and popcorn.

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Activities – As your family arrives, have then guess how many circus animal cookies or peanuts are in a jar. The person who guesses closest to the actual number wins the jar full of treats. Have a carnival. Assign 6- 10 family members a carnival booth. Children earn prizes at each booth. Face painting, fishing booth, fortune teller, Plinko, Dart Throw etc. Consider renting a bounce house for the little ones in your family. For more ideas check out the family reunion “circus” theme at www.familyreunionhelpercom/

Decorations – Balloons, tents and circus animal cutouts.

Circus Reunion

There’s no place like home- Wizard of Oz Theme inspired theme

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Oz Themed Activities

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Design an obstacle course depicting famous scenes from the movie. Run through a tissue paper poppy field, jump over bale of straw etc. Make bottle tornados and make a yellow brick road out of scrap lumber. Plan an activity that represents each Oz character such as paper plate lions, red glitter shoes and

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Decorations- Make flying monkeys from black poster board and hang around your reunion location. Use rainbow colored tablecloths (one color per table).

Food- “Ding Dong” the witch is dead Ding Dong cakes, rainbow lollypops, Lions, Tigers and Bears animal crackers and melted witch treats.

 

There's No Place Like Home

Western Themed Reunion


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Western Reunion Themed Activities

Make ponies from dollar store pool noodles and have a pool noodle rodeo. Shoot at targets with rubber band guns or pvc pipe bow and arrows. Make a family totem pole or try some line dance.

clip_image056Food- Call the food you serve” vittles”. Have a chili cook off., have a Texas Straw Hat food bar or serve barbeque, spareribs or grilled hamburgers. Use tin pie plates, mason jars with handles and lots of bandanas.

clip_image058Decorations- Put up a large ranch sign at the party entrance. Print off some wanted posters. To make it more fun, get hold of some photos of the guests and put them on the posters. Place some paper or real horseshoes on the path leading to the party entrance. Create a teepee out of a large sheet and some wooden dowels. Create a large cactus out of a cardboard box or even buy some inflatable ones. Cover the party food table in a red and white checkered cloth and hang up a sign saying “SALOON”.

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Western Family Reunion

Black Friday Shopping a Family Tradition

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Check out the application to go black Friday shopping at the end of this article

For our family, Black Friday shopping is a Thanksgiving tradition as rich as turkey stuffing or pumpkin pie.  We wake before the crack of dawn the morning after turkey day and start hunting down Black Friday bargains.

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I know that many of you are shaking your head in disgust right now- for many  people staying up late or getting up in the wee hours of morning seems ridiculous to you.  I’ll be the first to admit that you have to be a little (maybe a lot) crazy to get up early and be standing in a long line by 5 a.m.- in the cold, and the psycho crowds…and quite honestly I have never seen the crazy crowds that the media reports picture. For me, it’s not about the bargains out there or the money I might save- it’s about the silly family memories we make. 

Black Friday Memories

In our family we enjoy remembering the time Uncle Lee almost got trampled (Well, not really but it makes a better story) by a mob of frenzied shoppers fighting over Furby pets.

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We loved the year Sears gave out free $10.00 gift cards to the first person in line and we all came out with our purchases and hadn’t spent a dime of our own money.  My daughter still has the slippers she bought that day and wears them proudly.

Then there was the year we stood in a freezing cold Staples line and they brought everyone hot chocolate.  The hot Styrofoam cup kept our hands warm while we stood in line and talked and laughed about how stupid it was to be standing outside in the freezing cold at five in the morning.

One year our main priority was to hit the huge sock sale at Fred Meyers but when we entered the store we found it overflowing with bargain sock shoppers that we left without purchasing even one pair of socks.

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For the Wells family, Black Friday is an event and a rite of passage for pre-teens as they hope to be included in the early morning shopping spree.

My brother Lee, Uncle Steven and I are the instigators of the craziness and a few years ago we took Black Friday Shopping to a whole new level with an “Application to Go Black Friday Shopping With Aunt Mo & Uncle Lee” form.  This was a tongue-in-cheek application that those who wanted to go shopping had to fill out.  (A copy of this form can be  found at the end of this blog.)

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My brother, Scott, added some “over the top” fun to the event by organizing all of the ads for Black Friday sales in a crate with hanging file folders.  He was adamant that we return all ads to their specific file location so that everything stayed organized.  (Of course, all his organizing was only a ploy to be accepted as a member of our Black Friday shopping team.)

Black Friday Shopping Tips

Here’s some things we’ve learned to help us have a successful shopping trip:

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Make a plan.  Decide in advance which stores have the best bargains for the most shoppers in your group.

Leave your coat in the car and anything else that makes it difficult to maneuver through the store.

Beat the system by shopping in teams. We always separate into teams and go after items that we want.  One person (usually Uncle Steve) always heads for the check-out line so we don’t have to waste so much time waiting in line to check out.

One final note to store and shop owners- please don’t ruin Black Friday shopping by opening your doors a week early and calling it a “pre Black Friday” sale.  It seems that stores are opening earlier than ever and some have door busters slated for the day before Black Friday, letting you shop after Thanksgiving dinner.   I guess you’d say I am a purest- I like Black Friday where it’s supposed to be- the day after Thanksgiving, very early in the morning and surrounded by my family- at least those that filled out a Black Friday shopping application.

Aunt MO

Black Friday Application

Application to Go Black Friday Shopping With Aunt Mo & Uncle Lee

Black Friday shopping is a very serious business. It is a great honor to be part of Aunt Mo and Uncle Lee’s Black Friday shopping team. If you would like to be considered for a spot on the our Black Friday shopping team please fill out the following questioner and give it to Aunt Mo or Uncle Lee by 6:00 PM on Thanksgiving Day. We have very strict guidelines and take our Black Friday shopping very seriously. We will notify all successful candidates by 9:00 PM that same day. Good luck!

NAME ____________________ AGE ______

1. How many times have you been Black Friday shopping? ___________________________________

2. Are you an experienced Black Friday shopper YES or NO

3. What time will you go to bed Thanksgiving night? ________________________________________

4. Do you push the “snooze” button when your alarm goes off? YES or NO (We don’t want to wait for you)

5. What will you be shopping for? ________________________________________________________

6. Name three stores you would like to shop at? List in order of importance.

1.__________

2. __________

3. __________

7. How much cash will you bring with you? _______________________________________________

8. Do you have a credit or debit card? YES or NO (We do not allow those who use checks as they slow us down)

9. What do you feel is a good price to pay for a Hot Wheel car on Black Friday? __________________

10. Are you willing to stand in line while others shop? YES or NO

11. How fast do you run the mile? _________________________________________________________

12. How many pounds can you bench press? _______________________________________________

Please attach one letter of reference to this form.

Thank you for applying to be part of our Black Friday team. We will contact you by 9:00 PM Thanksgiving night.

5 Top Tips for Planning a Successful Family Reunion Cruise

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Written by Sally Fain

Planning A Family Reunion Cruise

Choosing to hold your family reunion on board ship has a great many things going for it. For a start, although you may not think so, a cruise can often be cheaper for a large group event over several days than a land-based event. They also require a lot less logistical planning, and provoke fewer arguments over what to do/where to go on each day of the reunion. Not to mention the fact that a cruise is exciting, and a lot of fun! However, it can take a bit of planning during the early stages. Here are a few tips to help you plan a family reunion cruise:

Start Planning Early

This goes for all family reunions, but it’s worth restating at the outset nonetheless! Remember, there is no way that you’re going to please 100% of your family members 100% of the time, but with a little compromise and negotiation, you can come up with something that will please the majority. However, in order to achieve this nice result and have a great event, you need to start talking to people and planning the kind of things you’d like fairly early on. On a financial level, getting your plans together and booking early can mean considerable discounts from cruise lines, so it’s worth getting started about a year or so before you actually set sail! Of course, there are some things you can’t really work out until you’ve booked or are close to booking – quite how you’re going to get everyone to the port, for example – but putting in the majority of the ground work early will pay off in the long term!

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Choose Your Reunion Cruise Well

The majority of cruise companies offer pretty good deals for large groups, some even with things like cover-all insurance etc included as part of the deal. Others will expect you to provide certain things on your own initiative. Both of these formats have advantages and disadvantages – the all-inclusive nature of many cruises means that you have far less of a headache organizing things like meals and entertainment, while the more self-driven option allows you more freedom of choice when covering yourself and your events, and choosing things to do/eat. In general, the nature of a cruise means that reunion event planning is an awful lot easier, logistically speaking, as you’re all on the one boat, and mealtimes, entertainment etc can be co-ordinated by the cruise company themselves. However, different cruises offer different kinds of things, and will provide different incentives for large groups. If families will be part of your plans, choose a cruise that caters to children with activities and entertainment to their liking. It’s well worth doing your research properly in order to get the best deal for you. You’re not going to please everyone, but you can make your cruise get as close as possible to the majority desire with a little research.

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Get A Reunion Cruise Team Together

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You can’t do this alone! Pick a couple of family members whose skills compliment your own (and each other’s) to help you out. It’s essential that at least one of you is good at communicating with the group at large. You’re likely to have a lot of generational differences and a range of interests in your family group, so it’s important to have someone on the organizational side of things who can take on board the varying needs and desires of your group. If you’ve got someone who’s got at website management then that’s fantastic – setting up a website (or even just a social media page) can be a fantastic way of getting your ideas together, keeping everyone up to date, and making people feel involved.

Negotiate

As a reunion cruise involves a lot less logistical planning than most other kinds of reunion, the major work you’ll have to do is that of negotiating. Negotiating with your family, negotiating with cruise providers…it may sound arduous, but it’s worth doing! You can get quite a lot of good deals and incentives if you’re prepared to communicate with the cruise lines. They’ll be happier than you might think to modify their structures and routines for the benefit of your family reunion – it’s just a case of asking them! Negotiating with the cruise companies will also be good practice for negotiating with your family – who are all bound to have different opinions on the kind of thing they want, and the best way in which to conduct the event. Good luck!

Back Home- A Poem About Family

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I read this poem on Facebook and it really touched my heart.  I had such an amazing childhood- a huge backyard for whiffle ball games, a room of my own and parents that supported my love for horses and music.  Gatherings with extended family were a huge part of my child, vacations by myself to my grandparents house in Wyoming, cousin sleepovers and of course family reunions.

I don’t know who wrote this poem but I hope they won’t mind that I share it with you.  I think it could easily be part of a family reunion or heritage scrapbook or a touching tribute for a special person in your life.

Back Home

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If I had the power to turn back the clock,
and go back to that house at the end of the block.
The house that was home when I was a kid,
I know that I’d love it more now than I did.

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If I could be back there at my mothers knee,
and hear once again,the things she told me.
I’d listen now as I never listened before,
for she knew so well what life had in store.

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And all the advice my dad used to give…
his voice I’ll remember as long as I live.
But it didn’t seem really important then,
what I’d give to live it all over again.

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What I’d give for the chance I once had,
to do so much more for my mom and dad.
To give them more joy and little less pain,
a little more sunshine-a lot less rain.

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But years roll on and i cannot go back,
whether I was born in a mansion or a shack.
I can start right now in the hour that’s here,
to do something more for the ones I hold dear.
And since time in its flight is traveling so fast,
I can’t spend it regretting that which is past.
But I’ll try to make tomorrow a happier day,
By doing my Good unto Others…Today.

(Author Unknown)

In-Laws, Outlaws and Offspring- a New Family Reunion Song

Family Reunion Helper gave away a free family reunion theme package  to one of our lucky subscribers, Dana Jo Forseth.  What a wonderful surprise to make a new friend and learn more about this talented songwriter and singer. 

Dana Jo has written a lot of songs and  her latest album. “Driven”, features a family reunion song called, “In-laws, Outlaws and Offspring”. I love, love, love the lyrics of Dana Jo’s reunion song- oh, the picture she paints through her words.  I can just see family members lip syncing the song at our reunion talent show. Smile

“One hundred people scattered through
Some dozen rooms we rent
And whoever can’t deal with their mother-in-law
Is free to bring a tent”

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You can listen to her song on Dana Jo’s webpage
http://danajoforseth.com/category/audio/

You can purchase the song on Amazon where you can also listen to snippets of all the songs on her latest album, the mastered versions , and that way they have a link to purchase right there. 
http://www.amazon.com/Driven/dp/B006QYO5C8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1330196058&sr=8-1

Dana Jo and I have corresponded through email the last month or so and I had the opportunity to learn a little more about her passion for singing, songwriting and family.

AUNT MO: Dana Jo, tell us a little about yourself.

DANA JO: I was born and raised on a farm outside of Fairfield, Montana, and I’ve always loved music.  I studied Business in college and work now as an accountant at a utility company in Montana, but I love to write, play and sing.  I’ve always wanted to record, and I hope I’ll have more opportunities to do that in the future.

AUNT MO: Where did you get the idea for your family reunion song, "In-laws, Outlaws and Offspring"?

DANA JO: I come from a very large family (there are over 150 people on my mother’s side of the family) and every 3 years, we gather for a week, usually at a lake or in the mountains somewhere.  Growing up, I’ve always known members of my family, and even though many of us get together all the time for holidays and weddings, these reunions are to credit (blame? Smile) for how close we are as a group.   The memories I made there are as much a part of my childhood as the place I grew up. 

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(A favorite family reunion activity- kids playing in the lake (“flying off the rope swing” etc) back in the 80s.)

DANA JO: A few of my relatives (more-so, the “outlaws”) were good with a guitar and I spent hours with my cousins sitting around a campfire, wishing I knew how to play one.  This was one of the first songs I ever wrote—and while I am nostalgic for our reunions (and they do still go on), I approached it almost with an irreverence…because, well, that’s how my family approaches a lot of things.

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(This is a picture of all eight of the Ward sisters doing a chorus line styled leg-kick back in 1975.  This became somewhat of a tradition at every reunion for as long as they all could do the kick.)

AUNT MO: I love the lyric that says "playing guess whose kid that is."  I think that is so funny- sounds like you’ve spent some time at family reunions. What are some of your favorite family reunion traditions?

Back when I was a kid, we would plan a lot of activities for the evenings that would get us all together as a group.  We’d have a trivia night, Water Olympics, an award ceremony, talent/skit show, game/tournament nights and the like for everyone, then as the younger and older would wander off to bed, we’d stay up and tell scary stories around the campfire, or (when I got older of course) play poker and drink a few beers.  Another favorite activity was cooking meals in the kitchen with our cousins and siblings, or learning from the aunts how to bake cinnamon rolls or potato bread.  One year we tried a karaoke night.  I don’t think we ever did that again…

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(The the evolution of reunion activities to playing “Just Dance” on the Wii.)

AUNT MO:  I love the song title, “In-Laws, Outlaws and Offspring”- how did you come up with that?

DANA JO: I didn’t come up with it—my Mom, Caroline Forseth, did.  I stole it from her after realizing I’d never heard the term anywhere else.  As to how she came up with it?  I’m not really sure…but I just think she’s a genius.

AUNT MO:  Tell us about the first song you ever wrote.

DANA JO: I wrote lyrics for years before I ever finished a song.  When I was a junior in high school, I was just starting to put together enough music theory to understand how to pair the music with the words.  So I finished my first whole song that Easter, and played it publicly for the first (and only) time at my high school’s spring concert.  It was also the first time I ever sang a solo in front of people—so talk about nerves!   I hadn’t told anyone about it other than my band teacher—my parents were very surprised and I think a little delighted.  The song was nothing special—it was called “So Far From Yesterday” and the register was so high I could hardly sing it. But I could only play it in the key I wrote it in.  Luckily, the critics were silent and the night ended with some really great pizza in a neighboring town.

AUNT MO: What a great story, you’ve come along way from high school spring concert- you’ve just released a new album- who do you hope will hear the album?

DANA JO: I’m just trying to get it out to the ears of the people who will love it—and that could be anyone at all.  Even though it (and I) came from a rural place, I feel like there’s something on this record for everyone.  It celebrates family roots, grieves losses and explores sadness, deals with a bad day, enjoys love, and shakes off heartbreak.  The emotions are universal, and being mostly-acoustic, many of the songs are so stripped down that fans of all different genres can enjoy them.  I really enjoyed writing these songs, and I’m so excited that people finally get to hear them.

Good luck to Dana Jo and her family and just in case you’re wondering- Dana Jo choose Book One of the Pipe Chimes books so I bet the Forseth family will be making music on the conduit pipes at their next family reunion.

Aunt MO

Location, Location, Location!

It’s official- the Stewart family reunion will be held at Box  Elder Campground! Why is that great news? Well, as far as I’m concerned, finding the location to hold a family reunion is the most difficult part of the planning. Give me responsibility for the food, the games and the decorating but PLEASE don’t make me find a place to hold the family reunion.  That’s just too hard.  That’s why when we find a good family reunion location we keep going there until circumstances change and we have to move on.

Lately, our favorite reunion location has been Hanson Park. It is the dream location. It has a large grassy area for camping and playing games, ball diamond for softball, restrooms, kitchen with large grills and a full size fridge, covered bowery, basketball, swings and lots of parking. The only problem with Hanson Park is that it wasn’t available this year – you snooze you lose. . .

So where to hold your family reunion?  Here’s my list:

Campground, Park, College dormitory, Condominium, Resort, Cruise, Theme Park, Reservoir, Beach, Bed and Breakfast, Grandma’s yard, Hotel, Ranch, Water Park, Hot Springs Resort or an Ancestral Site such as a town where your ancestors’ homesteaded or where they were born or died.  Have I left any place out?

When looking for a family reunion location consider the distance family members will have to travel to the reunion.  Can family members get to your reunion without having to take a lot of vacation from work?  There are some wonderful resort locations near us but the cost is prohibitive.  Consider affordability– will some of your family members be unable to attend the reunion because of the cost?   Determine what features the proposed reunion site offers.  If  you want to have a water reunion then plan your reunion at a water park.  When choosing your location, be sure to ask about facilities such as parking, restrooms and, for outdoor reunions, alternatives in case of rain. Most campgrounds limit how many vehicles you can park at the site. Even group sites will have a limit. One of the campgrounds we have used for our family reunions will allow 100 people in the group camping site but only allows parking for 10 total automobiles. Doesn’t seem to make sense, does it?

Some things the Stewarts consider when selecting a family reunion location is that it is close enough to Grandma and Grandpa’s house so that Grandpa (age 85) can sleep in his own bed. We also want our reunion location to be close enough to motels so that families that don’t care for camping can rent a room for the reunion and we HAVE to have access to restrooms but hot showers and electricity are not necessary.

There have been some years that I thought, “Oh, well, guess we won’t be having a family reunion this year.” But every year we keep  at it and something eventually works out. We have held our family reunion at parks, campgrounds, on the beach, at a condominium, in a backyard, bed and breakfast, at a hot springs resort and Grandma’s front yard.  Each year everyone always says, “this has been the best reunion ever!” and although each site has different things to offer I would consider each of our reunions a success. I guess that just proves that although “where” you have your family reunion is important, “having” a family reunion is the most important thing of all!

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My first memories of family reunions

My first memories of family reunions were attending the "Fackrell" family reunion in Lyman, Wyoming as a child.  The first evening of the reunion we would meet at the school and listen to the original family members tell about their families.  I have to admit I probably would’ve enjoyed hearing about Aunt Ruth’s most recent, Uncle Kim’s crop loss and "the twins" escapades at college but honestly I didn’t know WHO these people were!

Aunt Mo sharing her talent at the Fackrell Family reunion

Aunt Mo sharing her talent at the Fackrell Family reunion

The second day of our reunion was the best- with relay races (we got a nickel if we participated and a dime if we won our race) good food and prizes (for the oldest, youngest, person that traveled the farthest and the cousin with the longest hair.)  Uncle Spence and Addie always bought their sound system and boxes of orange sticks to share.  The men would admire the new "touring" car Uncle Frank just bought and all the women would fuss over the newest Fackrell baby.  That second day of the Fackrell reunion gave me a love of family and of coming together- I just wanted to do it bigger and better than it had ever been done before.

Aunt Mo and Uncle Steve at the Western Family Reunion

Aunt Mo and Uncle Steve at the Western Family Reunion

The first family reunion I was in charge of was the DeLoy and Marilynn Stewart reunion 27 years ago.  We held it up Box Elder Campground and we all fit into four campsites.  Now we have to rent an entire park or campground to accommodate all of us Stewarts and it takes at least three days to pack in all the fun we have.  And that’s why there is so much material for this website.  My brothers had been trying to convince me to do a family reunion website but I just had no idea how to go about it.  Then…

last October my husband, Uncle Steven, got caught in a " Reduction of Force" at ATK/Thiokol and thus this website came to be.  How fun it has been to look at old photos and relive fun memories of favorite reunions throughout the years.

A big thanks to my family, for being good sports and "guinea" pigs for all my wild and crazy ideas, to my husband and partner in crime, Uncle Steven, who knows how to make my ideas come to life and to my brothers who believe in me, my Mom and Dad for letting me create, plan and practice on them and to my amazing "web master", Terance, for his patience and professionalism.

And to all of you who visit his site- I hope that your reunions will be a rewarding experience and that through them you will discover the roots and branches on your own family tree.

Aunt MO