2012 Watson Reunion

It had been four years since I last went to a Watson reunion, so this was Stephen's first time meeting the extended family on my mom's side. We both had a blast. I even made a whizzy this year which was my first one in the adult group. We had a garage sale scavenger hunt, played all sorts of pioneer games, some of the family did skits from real stories about great grandma and grandpa watson and Gold, the pony express came riding in to deliver letters, lots of food, candy, naps, and fun!

 Here comes Elmer, Elmer's got a gun.....

 Grandma and Grandpa Watson

 Dad and I dressed up for the pioneer day, so we had to take a picture. This is my favorite.

For those of you who don't know what a whizzy is, it is a Watson family tradition for everyone to make a "whizzy" or some sort of craft for less than a dollar and wrap it up. We play like a white elephant exchange, so you open a whizzy and people can trade gifts so on and so forth. The Watsons are all pretty talented with wood working and sewing, so most of the whizzys are shelves, chairs/benches, tables, blankets, etc...that someone made so these whizzys are gifts that you would want to have not like a white elephant where you are trying to get rid of something you don't want.

I came up with my whizzy about a month ago just out of thin air. I thought some cute clay garden stakes would be fun to have out in my garden, so I made it my whizzy. I thought it was a great idea, so I stuck with it, but by the time I had finished my whizzy I didn't like them. I was really disappointed they didn't turn out the way I had them pictured in my head. I even contemplated whether or not I should even bring them, but I didn't work on those for hours and hours after work for nothing. I thought if no one else liked them I would take them and put them in my own garden. Turned out that everyone loved them much to my surprise. They got traded a few times and broken in the process, but I ended up winning the prize for most creative whizzy and the grand prize for best over all whizzy this year. I even had a few people tell me they would pay me if I made them some garden stakes and that I should sell them on Etsie!

On top of all that I guessed the exact number in order to be the first and last to choose a whizzy so I could get whatever gift I wanted at the end which makes the whizzys so much more enjoyable because I didn't have to sweat over which whizzy I would end up with. I chose one of grandpa's boxes that he made, because owning a box that grandpa made is something pretty special in our family, so everyone wanted them and some people get a little jealous, but hey, what can you do?

 My cute little garden stakes.

 Grandpa's box that I picked to take home.