It is mid-July and it's 90 degrees and hotter. So, it can only mean only thing....it is time for the annual Koenig Family Reunion! It is held at the American Legion in Fredricksburg in Holmes County. Yes, for those of you who know your Ohio geography, it is in the midst of Amish Country. The location itself is gorgeous. It is a really nice place set in the woods. There is a pond for fishing and swimming. Lots of shade for those warm days. And the food is off the hook! The Koenig women, with the exception of me, can cook!
Every year it is a small gathering of the same suspects! It is all of my mom's cousins and their families on my grandfather's branch of the tree. Now it is a bit a crooked branch, but that's better than a straight branch, right? Of course my Uncle Gary and his family were in attendance. I love my Uncle Gary. He and I torture each other. All my life he has called 'De-nephew'. (Get it: the De-niece and the De-nephew) I'm 49 years old and he still calls me that. He thinks it is hysterical. I have come full circle with it. As a child I would laugh. As a college student and through 30 something, it annoyed the heck out of me. But now at the age of 49, I love it. I would be hurt if he quit! Of course, I always respond back with 'You're my favorite uncle'. And he responds, 'I'm you're only Uncle!" And I just smile. Today's visit was no different!
Well, Uncle Gary and Aunt Karen are faithful blog followers. (BTW, Aunt Karen, do you see the box at the top that says email address? If you put your email address in there, you will receive email notifications when I post a new entry! ) So Uncle Gary knew about my 5K training. So all day at the reunion I had to listen to him go on about my running. "Was I tired from running the 2 hours there?" :
"Was I going to run home? " "Why don't you show us how you run!" I think you get the picture! It was non stop. So, I threatened him that the might just end up in a post some day. So, to you Uncle Gary, SNAP! I got the last word! Love you!
My one and only cousin, Libby, was there with her fiance, Aaron. He is a very nice young man and he seems to bring out the best in Libby. Of course we had to put him through the 'test'. To survive in our family you had better be able to roll with the punches! We can be quite the sarcastic group, not to mention blunt. Aaron passed each part of the test with flying colors. I'm happy to say Aaron can roll with the best of us! Of course, the big test will come at Christmas when we ALL are together. That will determine if he stays or goes!!! I'm rooting for him!
My brother Vince is just like my Uncle Gary. Vince has to tease everyone. His ammo is to have a nickname for everyone in the family. This year's victim was Libby. Her first nickname was PITA (Pain in the ass), and has changed over the years. For the last couple of years she has been called the doctor because she was in dental school. Well, she and Aaron just graduated and are now dentists! Libby took a job at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility. Yep, she is the prison dentist! Yikes! So now she has been christened with the new nickname, The Warden! Maybe Aaron will get the old Doctor moniker! That's yet to be determined! We have to make sure he is going to stay for the long haul before we can nickname him!
Then of course, I was once again crowned the fun Aunt of the reunion. See little Hunter wanted to fish, so I brought him a pole, tackle box, and worms. They actually belong to Rick, but I hauled them on my back as I 'ran' all the way there!!! Right, Uncle Gary? Well, turns out I'm the only relative that knows how to bait a hook, cast a reel, and de-hook a fish! The kid wanted to fish and apparently I'm the only one out of many who knows how to do this. Now to be fair, my brother Vince did get him started, but took off as soon as the opportunity arose. So the duties were left to me. Of course, I'm also the same aunt who played street hockey with him at Christmas, so Hunter knows who he can count on. We had fun. Of course he got bored real quick and let me do all of the work. He would wonder off to see how the other kids were doing. But he was quick to run back to take the credit for each fish I caught! But as the fun aunt that was okay with me! We both will always remember our fishing trip!
As I was leaving the reunion, I realized how my attitude has changed about them over the years. As a small child I loved them. It was an opportunity to play with other kids you didn't know. It was also an opportunity to torture Uncle Gary and visa a versa. Then I became a teenager and hated everything. I would sit and glare the entire time. We didn't have cell phones back then. If we had, I would have been able to text my teen angst to my fellow angry friends. Once I hit college and my 20s, I quit going completely. Why should I go? I don't know those people. Then my mom moved to Florida and the rite of passage was handed down to me. As the oldest, it was now my responsibility to represent our branch of the crooked tree! I'll be honest, I would go like every other year. But something happened this year. As I looked around I noticed that the all of the branches of the tree seem to be aging, although gracefully. It made me wonder what will happen to our little family reunion when all of the cousins are gone. Will we, the next generation, continue the tradition after our parents are gone? Or will the tree die with them? I made a promise to myself on the way home to do my best to attend as many as I can for as long as they continue. You just never know what the future holds.
Make Every Day Count.....
Denise
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