or at least we RULE the pichard family... which is at least half of the world. or so it seems in tallahassee. we are kind of related to almost everyone in town. we are a really close knit family. we meet on the third monday of each month at a local restaurant for lunch and have a beach day in the summer...
but once every winter we all get together for the PICHARD-A-THON and compete for a really tacky pink tree and braggin’ rights to say we are the champions for another year...
and oh yeah baby, we won it again! two years in a row. it is like winning the super bowl, except better!
the teams are as follows....
we are team clarence (he was my grandpa on my mom’s side). our team is my family, my brother and his family, my sister and her family (and it would be my brother jeff too, if he was in town). we don’t have shirts. we don’t need them to DOMINATE.
team marion (clarence’s brother and his partner in the pichard brother construction company). playing for team marion are marion (g-daddy’s grandkids and great grandkids) my cousins elise and her family, jay and his family, leyann and her family. they are in the red “team g-daddy” shirts.
and team david (marion and clarence’s nephew). this consists of sisters abbie, leisa, and laura and their families. they have totally cool “our branch swings” blue t-shirts.
we did add a totally new branch of the family this year. claude pichard and his family came out for the first time (they are very brave). team david needed some support. yeah, we are that tough that other families were recruiting...
now, here is the format. we meet the saturday before Christmas. we all bring soup in crockpots and some other assigned items (i was corn muffins). we meet at my cousin laura’s house (she has some serious acreage and is close to westminster oaks retirement home, which will be important later).
each branch (clarence, david and g-daddy) all bring one new game and all the supplies to play it. they explain the game and the scoring and we COMPETE LIKE CRAZY. a winner is determined by a non-pichard family (the butlers volunteer for this every year and they are totally fair and unbiased even though we all try to bribe them, which is maybe why they volunteer each year).
then we all eat and then we pile on the back of someone’s hay wagon and drive through westminster oaks caroling at several different buildings. we go into the main dining room and elise plays the piano and we all sing some more. and ring jingle bells.
then we come back and eat more and talk and the kids play flashlight tag and wear glow in the dark bracelets and someone falls and cries and we pat their head and send them back our into the dark.
we roast marshmallows over a fire and eat s’mores and get all sticky. and then we go home.
and one team goes home with the pink tree. and that was us again.
the merriment is excessive... see the evidence below...
and round one is make your own antlers out of balloons (you had to blow up all the balloons) and panty hose and some decorations. all in 5 minutes....
judging on creativity, size of the “rack”, and presentation.
and despite some valiant efforts from team david and team g-daddy (and despite team g-daddy handing the judges some MONEY, see the above right side photo), team clarence won! rosie was a great reindeer, shawn was a strong supporter, and our family had plenty of hot air to blow up those balloons....
game #2.. guess who.
one family member (ages 5-10) is blindfolded and with NO one talking has to go through his/her teammates and by touching them ONLY with the wooden spoons identify each team member.
again we ROCKED this event. and it isn’t because we spend a lot of time feeling up our cousins with wooden spoons... but that doesn’t hurt.
this game is only for cousins who don’t mind being poked in strange places with wooden spoons and being told by their nieces or nephews, “oh, i know, that is my dad’s stomach!”
adam decided to jump into team g-daddy and try to confuse young camille by adding some new parts to his chest. she wasn’t fooled at all...
and team clarence took the gold medal for this event as well. rhodes guessed 14 out of 15 of us correctly!
and now time for the final round... the double point round, the most difficult one of the evening...
the last task was to create an original Christmas themed play involving all team members and 4 random props (we had a plastic stingray, a christmas tray, a stuffed rat, and a vacuum bag). we made a lovely scenerio of santa taking a date to a restaurant, ordering sushi (the stingray on a tray), a rat disturbing their evening and he trying to get engaged by giving her vacuum bags instead of a ring. santa was still single at the end of the play.
team david took home the gold medal for this event. they had songs, ballet dancing, and a halloween purse filled with total cereal that was eaten onstage. i think they may open this on broadway next season... tony awards here we come....
well, at that point i put up my camera and we all started eating and my hands were way too sticky after the s’mores to operate the camera buttons. besides... some things that happen at the pichard-a-thon should stay at the pichard-a-thon... like aunt vertis’ recipe for the most decadent coconut cake... oooh that was SO delish!