January Reunion Update

I was trying to save time by not retyping everything so I just edited the last post not realizing that it would keep the old date and eliminate the previous update.  Oh well - sorry about that.

Now that the Christmas holidays are over and things are getting put away we figured you might have some time to get ready for the reunion. Here is an update on the latest reunion news.   I sure hope everyone is as excited about our Nauvoo reunion as Dad and I are.

VIDEO CHALLENGES

We now have four video challenges and are looking forward to seeing what the rest of you come up with.  

Jump - from Mom and Dad 

Hum (or whistle or somehow creatively present) your favorite hymn (or primary song)  - from Tawnia

Where I Live" - what makes your house/town/state unique?  - from Mindy, Aaron and Aria

Horror Movie Trailer - from Jared, Michelle, Brooke, Bryan and Emma

Best Movies of the Decades
Nominating Committee - get your votes in - send to frankandevelynpalmer@yahoo.com. Remember the committee is the eight siblings. So far we've heard from three of you. If anyone has not been able to access the videos on dropbox, please let us know.

The Retirement of Captain Chaos
Adam came up with this movie idea, remember? The grandkids hear that Captain Chaos is
retiring and they want to take his place so they make audition tapes. The final scene will be filmed at the reunion and edited onto the end so it can be shown there. Please send your portion of the movie to Dad. Also contact Adam with your idea of how you receive the news so he can "send" it from there, since his kids will be the first to know. Any questions?

Apples to Apples
I'm putting stickers on some of the cards to make this the Palmer Family version. Please
email me a definition for each person in your family. Also include schools attended, places you've lived or other things unique to you or your family

Here is my definition for Lafayette "Lafayette Oregon 
A small town in Oregon. Home to the Palmer family from 1979 to 2014. Now home to the Coles"

Clarissa came up with these definitions:

Clarissa Nicole Cole - Yes it’s a stutter but it means clear victory.

Lester Jason Lee Cole - Legion of healers from the meadow of fire.

Scrappy - Half Jack Russell Half American Eskimo - 100% Lap-Ninja

Is there anything I've forgotten?  

the Caudles' house

Family history question 1:
Please describe the home in which you currently live. 

SUMMER
Our house is really, really cool. We have a basement and a really big living room and a HUGE backyard! I have my clubhouse in the backyard. It's in an evergreen bush. Today, the others and I found a really cool place. I discovered it so it's part of my part of the clubhouse. We all have our own part of the clubhouse. I got a higher part than anyone.

MARNIE
Our house is great. Our basement is nice. It's got lots of toys. The toys are mine and my sisters'. My bedroom has yellow walls and my bunkbed is pink. I sleep in the middle and Summer sleeps at the top. Jenna sleeps in a bed that's slid under my bed. It's right at my pillow. My room has butterflies over the closets, and some pretty flowers and more butterflies and a bee on my lightswitch cover. It's white.

JENNA
We have books on the shelf in the playroom. I like to play downstairs in the basement. That's where the toys are. The computer is in the living room. The lights on the living room ceiling are like jingle bells. The kitchen is blond like me. White and green. The frigerator is white like the freezer. When Miriam comes to our house, she eats her favorite breakfast at our house. There's computer games and movies to watch on the computer. The piano has stuff on the top.

TENLEY
Piano.

TRINA & ADAM
We're very happy with our big house! The upstairs has all of our main living space. We have 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. The girls all share one big bedroom, and the 3rd bedroom is currently the sewing and guest room. We have an okay-sized kitchen with an eating area and a sliding glass door out onto the deck. The formal dining room has been changed to our reading room. It has bookcases all the way around. Our very large living room currently has just the computer desk, a couple of small bookcases, and the piano. We're still figuring out furniture for that part of the house. The downstairs is just 3 rooms - a big playroom, a storage room with the laundry area, and the garage.

Outside, we're on a corner lot in the suburbs of Hartford CT. We have 3/4 acre, so our yard is HUGE! We have TONS of trees - over 50. There are oak, hickory, maple, pine, and cedar. We're definitely planning to put in a garden next spring, and Adam is going to build a tree house in the back corner.

family history project

It's General Conference weekend, and I'm currently watching the World Report between sessions. There was a short thing about family history and a comment about how family history is getting a new surge through social media. We've talked about what to do with this blog since it's been pretty dead since we all got on Facebook.

My thought, actually a year or two ago also at General Conference but I never did anything about it, is to use this as our family history repository, and answer questions about current things so 1. we can get to know each other better (for example, cousins that still haven't met yet and new uncles) and 2. so we have it for the future. To start, I'll post a question about once a month for everyone to answer. I hope everyone will participate but obviously this is optional. It would be cool to have all the kids give their own answers, because one thing is for sure with at least my kids - even when they're talking about the same thing, they give very different answers. I'd also love for anyone who is working on family history to post things that they've found on here so the rest of us can learn our distant family history as well. Summaries of what we know about our early history would be good, like the letters Mom sent out just before our first Nauvoo reunion. I found some of the papers she sent the other day, but having them online where they can be accessed would be good too.

So here's our first question:

Please describe the home in which you currently live.