The Davis Family Reunion

On a lighter note! We are headed to our Family Reunion in Palestine, Texas! Some of the greatest memories I have as a child are of the Davis Family Reunion. The second weekend in June was a weekend to always look forward to. This was the time of year we got to see ALL the cousins. At times there are close to two hundred people in attendance, so when I say I have a lot of cousins, I mean I have A LOT of cousins. My parents are already there and they have Josiah with them. Last Summer they bought a fifth wheel and it sits right by the Pavilion where are all the festivities take place. Oh and yes, there is air conditioning for all activities! We are right by the Lake so taking the boat is a must! There is also a pool so a lot of the kids go swimming or they walk down to the boat dock and swim in the lake.

Friday night starts with homemade ice cream and family singing. I come from a very musical family. So we all sit around and sing old gospel songs while eating homemade ice cream. Some of these people I only see once a year but when I see them, it seems like last year's reunion was just yesterday. Just a few years ago, my own grandmother (grannymaw) would play and sing too. She can play any instrument! This is no joke! She now just listens. And since my son has such and obsession with playing the Guitar, we thought we would let him take his along so he can participate tonight. Surely they will let a three year old join in! We got a bass guitar, a banjo, a piano, and several guitars so it always make for a good old fashion jam session!

Tomorrow morning the women will be busy, busy, busy. The family meal is at 1pm so lots of cookin' to get done. This is my favorite part of the weekend! The food is the best Southern food you have ever had, I promise. Then there will be plates of fresh tomatoes, onions (Noonday Onions), cucumbers and okra! YUMMO! Oh and the deserts are out of this world! Woo! I am hungry now just thinkin' about it! Then at 3pm, it's the Family Auction. Everyone in the family brings a craft and it goes up for bid. Last year there was a family cookbook that one of my cousins had made. Once the bid got past two hundred dollars, I knew I would not be getting it! All of the money raised goes into the Davis Reunion Fund. After that we have the busting of the piñata for the kids (I stuffed the pinatas this year, actually last night). Then the Sand Volley ball tournament followed by horseshoes tournament. Trophies are handed out and then it's time for FAMILY BINGO!!! My mom is in charge of our family reunion so I help her do a lot of stuff including buy prizes. We play several rounds of bingo and each winner gets to choose a prize! I think we spend close to $400 on prizes so it's good stuff. My favorite cousin, Cara, helps me call out the bingo numbers in the microphone. We love to play jokes on everyone and call out bogus numbers or say weird things in the microphone that no one understands. "X9, X9". Do you know how many people say this? "There's no X on the bingo card!" Last year my grandmother gave me some disapproving looks. Those older people are serious about bingo!

Oh and we also do a fish fry on Saturday night and I must say that half of the fish we are frying this year, I CAUGHT!



Here we are at Jeremy's parents house getting ready to filet the fish. Yes, I cut their heads off too, not just Jeremy. I figure if I caught 'em, I need to be the one to clean 'em! So this is what we do during theweekendss leading up to the reunion. We drop the kids off at Gparents, take the boat to Lake Grapevine and fish, fish, fish! We have to make sure we go a few times in order to have enough fish for the Reunion.

So in just a few hours, we are off to The Davis Family Reunion but fisrt we have to stop in Noonday for some onions!