The Cabin

     Hi everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas 😁

    We all had a ton of fun at the cabin, but it ended way too soon. Other, more introverted, members of my family would likely disagree with me there, but I could have stayed at least two or three more days!

    Now, as I promised, here is my cabin post.

    We left Friday, Christmas Eve, around noon, and got there around 2:30- which, as it happened, was an hour and a half earlier than we were supposed to be there. We left plenty early because we weren't sure how traffic and the weather would be.

    Anyway, Daddy texted the guy and he was very nice and said we could get in early; everything was ready.

    The other's showed up around 3:00, and it was total pandemonium, with seventeen children ages 2-15 plus nine adults all trying to find their way around in a huge cabin without getting lost (I will admit, I did get lost on my way upstairs more than once, if you can believe that).

    After a while things calmed down and my dad and one of my uncles and Grandma went to pick up previously ordered pizza, and to get firewood and lighters for the fireplace.

    After a wild free-for-all that some people referred to as supper, we settled down and played Confusion and Occupation for a while, then just hung out and finally went to bed at 11:00. 

    Which, as it happens, is three hours past the time I normally go to bed, so I was not, shall we say, jolly, when my sister and three of my cousins were determined to party far into the night. After arguing for a while, they went into the family room right outside our room, and partied there and I immediately fell asleep.

    I woke up the next morning at the crack of 7:15 to find two of the dresses I had brought along that were intended for pictures strewn on the floor. Much to my disgust they had been playing wedding, and my dresses were the bridal gowns, because I am older and therefore taller than the others, which means that my dresses were longer, and they wanted a train, I guess. Thankfully they weren't wrinkled beyond all repair.

    After a breakfast of cinnamon rolls and fruit and coffee cake, some of us went out to the garage which was actually a game room, and played foosball. 

    Then we were summoned to the living room for pictures. First we did pictures of all the grandchildren and Grandma. Then pictures of the whole group. Then pictures of Grandma and Daddy and my uncles. Then pictures of each individual family. Then pictures of all of the girls. Then the boys. Then all the grandchildren that were born in '09. Then the grandchildren that were born in 2012. We were going to take pictures of the children born in 2019, but one of the them was decidedly uncooperative and wouldn't stop crying (too many pictures). 

    Finally, it was lunch time, which put an end to the picture taking (thankfully. I don't know how much longer I could have stood it).

    We had a fantastic lunch of ham, turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, salad, dinner rolls with cinnamon butter, ribbon salad, and pie and ice cream. 

    Afterward, we children went down to the family room and watched Tom & Jerry and Wile E. Coyote and Mark Rober's latest glitterbomb video, which was met with great delight. 

    Then, just as we were starting to enjoy ourselves, one of the uncles came downstairs and snatched the remote 😐

    So we went and played some more foosball and ping pong and just kind of hung out. 

    Some of us also played a Bible family game, where you had to try to get all the members of a Bible family. It was very confusing, and lasted for hours, but it was also kind of fun.

    That evening, the little ones were marched off to bed at 8:00 sharp, much to their disgust and dismay.

    Then we older ones and the adults played Confusion and Occupation again, only I kept losing the papers and after we had to go around the circle and find out who was missing every single time we played Confusion, we gave up and played Occupation instead.

    The next day, Sunday, we had a short service and we all sang songs, then we had brunch around 10:00. After eggs, breakfast casserole, sausage gravy and biscuits, and Grandma's caramel french toast, no one was in the mood to do much. Unfortunately, there was a State Park just down the road, and my uncles were determined to go on a walk there.

    My sister and I and one of our cousins managed to slink into the shadows, so to speak, until they left (don't worry, we had permission to stay, and the ladies stayed home too).

    They weren't gone anywhere near long enough for us to recuperate, but it was a start.

    After lazily lounging around, Daddy and his three brothers played foosball, which was a very amusing spectacle. You will probably never meet anyone as competitive as those four, and it was hilarious to see them shrieking and pounding their way through two games (both sides won a game, so everyone was happy).

    The little ones were put to bed fairly early again, which left us free to enjoy ourselves. 

    Of course, we had to play Confusion and Occupation again, but someone came up with the brilliant idea of having everybody put their own name on their piece of paper in Confusion, so no names were left out.

    We played one round of Confusion, then we moved on to Occupation, where one of my cousins put down "donkey spanker" as his occupation. 

    This was met with shrieks of laughter from those of us young and immature enough to find that amusing, and looks of great disgust from the adults.

    After Occupation, we all sat around while the adults told stories. We heard some real knee-slappers that evening that are perhaps best left un-repeated. 

    Just as we were starting to enjoy ourselves, we got shipped off to bed, because "morning's coming awfully quick."

    But we went to bed and I was surprised by how fast I fell asleep, and then I was even more surprised by how late I slept (8:00). I could have slept even longer if some of the boys hadn't been arguing right outside our door. 

    Well, I stumbled out of bed and got my clothes and went to see if I could find an un-occupied bathroom. Lo and behold, the one by our room was actually open, which was definitely a good way to start off the day. 

    I came upstairs just as breakfast was very loudly announced by my nine year old cousin who could probably get a part time job as a fog horn. 

    We had a hurried breakfast of leftovers from the other two mornings, then we were all told to go pack; we had to be out of there by 11:00. 

    The others left mournfully waving goodbye around 10:00, and we left almost exactly an hour later. 

    We came home, and I wished so bad we could go back. I wished it were Friday morning, and we just getting ready to start. Hopefully, everyone enjoyed it enough to go again next year.

    I'll keep ya posted!

    Happy New Year's Eve Eve😉😁

                                        ~Caitlyn