Family Reunion Projects

So, the real reason I haven't been around blogging, or even stamping for that matter, is that I have spent 2019 planning for and prepping a family reunion. And since it was this weekend, I can finally show off my projects!
This side of the family is scattered, currently we have people in Utah, Arizona, Nevada, California and Hawaii, but we've had people all over the country, and many in other countries at different times. We've held a reunion in 1981, 1993, 1995 and 2009, so it was time. It was also in honor of what would be my grandmother's 100th birthday if she was still around. My parents coordinated the entire thing, so I was in charge of "entertainment".

Obviously, after all that time and distance, we were going to need a get-to-know-you activity. Most of us are introverts and are likely to sit quietly talking to one person, and it's likely that one person is going to be a parent or sibling they live with instead of another relative. I really wanted people to mingle, haha, so I came up with a variation of an ice breaker game that would guarantee we found out something new about each other. You're probably familiar with the game I've played many times on the first day of a new class, where you have to find someone with nail polish on or someone born the same month as you or someone who went to Disneyland over the summer...? That same idea, but customized so that you would find THESE relatives. I asked each person who MIGHT come to send me 3-5 facts about themselves. Initially I thought I'd pick the most unique fact, but then I decided to use as much as possible so that not only would we learn more about each other, but we were also more likely to discover something randomly in common with each other, and therefore be more inclined to have a conversation with someone "new". My son actually made the grid for me, and typed in the facts. It covered both sides of the paper, plus a few bonus questions. Also, we only included those ages 4 and up.
When it came time to play, I said it was totally fine to add names of the people you knew for sure- spouses, children, siblings, whatever, but that the point was to get everyone talking to each other. I didn't know how it would actually go, but it was so much fun to see that yes- almost everyone got up and talked to each other trying to fill in their sheet and actually get to know each other. I had a time limit of 30 minutes, which ended up perfect for one person, haha. Only one person filled the whole sheet AND got it right. I gave out a prize (candy bar) for that, and for completing one whole side, and I also got a lot of comments that it wasn't enough time, which was fine with me! It ended up a hit and highlight of the day, and I am glad of that.

Since we were focused on my grandmother, and on ancestors, we wanted to give people a chance to get to know the people they come from. I created a BINGO game for that. Our family is a little bit complicated, due to my grandmother being widowed twice, so I used three lines of genealogy for the BINGO boards. I also included my uncle and cousin that have passed away- otherwise they would have attended the reunion. Then instead of a traditional BINGO game, where, for example, I would have called out "B-1", I created some fact cards about each of these ancestors. I used their picture, their name, their birth and death years, and a few facts I could find or come up with on each of them. I created it all in my loved-but-long-retired MDS. Each BINGO board took almost an hour to create, so I stopped at 15. Not to mention the time it took researching all the facts...on 27 ancestors!
This was kind of geared more to the children, so I bought a bunch of small party favors as prizes, pencils, slinkys, jolly ranchers, stampers and even a few toy cars. This didn't get played a whole lot, but, I laminated it all and will keep it for Thanksgivings and future family gatherings when we need something to do, hahaha!

Finally, I continued my photo project, where we've been scanning in all the pictures that belonged to my grandmother (or of previous family events) and adding captions. Names, dates, locations, any other details we could come up with. Over the last year, I have gotten 758 photos scanned and captioned for my dad's family. 166 of them last week alone! They look like this now:

And then, in addition to all that, I found items to display, again with a focus on my grandmother. Everything on this table is her work- the toys, the pillow, the bags, she wrote the story in the magazine, and behind that is a little binder including letters and postcards she sent me, a few times she re-wrote songs for things she needed, and the last page was some tidbit memories from my dad and I. The front binder is pictures that were completed, that my aunt already had on scrapbook pages for people to thumb thru. And two quilts she made me below. As the day went on, my brother, my mom and my cousin added some quilts and a Raggedy Andy doll- all the boys got Andy, all the girls got Ann.

And this was a display of pictures of my grandmother and her husbands and their parents and families. My aunt added a picture later, but I didn't take pictures of these tables as the day went on... 

Anyway, THAT is where my brain has been for a while now.
It ended up going better than I expected and we had a wonderful turn out. We only missed 8 people! It was a fun day and we got such great feedback too. I think every person learned more than they expected (haha!) and everyone definitely got to know one another better and that was the whole point!

But maybe I'll get some stamping done soon and get back to my regular classes.... that would be fun too! hahaha!!