A week ago today was the end of a long standing tradition for 12-year olds in the Everton Family -- "The Blood of the Buffalo". Mazey is the youngest cousin in the Everton family and she was our last 12-year old to go through this "coveted" ceremony held each year at the Everton Family Reunion. Jesse's wife, Amanda, also went through it this year and we still have plenty of "in-law" members of the family that will help us keep this tradition alive, but it seemed quite strange to think we no longer have any 12-year olds left. (I know this one of our stranger traditions that those of you who have married into the family must scratch your heads and wonder a little about our sanity.) But to our strange family, this did mark a "right of passage" that was looked forward to each year.Mallory helped organize and lead the ceremony this year and she felt strange being one of the "older" cousins to perform the ceremony because for so many years she was in the "younger" cousins group. It was a Harry Potter theme this year (since atleast half the family had been anxiously awaiting the book and had gone to purchase it at midnight the night before, and most of the day half the family was glued to that book or reading to each other from it.) Did you notice the lightening bolt and big glasses painted on their faces (with chocolate frosting) in honor of Harry? The names they were given were also very Harry Potterish.
The reunion was great this year. It seemed very bare without very many Bob Everton's or Anderson's there. It was only 4 days long also, so it went by so quickly. Our cabin we stayed in was GREAT! The weather was awesome and it was beautiful at the lake. We saw a play, "The Little Shop of Horrors" at the Pickleville Playhouse, hiked into a cave, hiked to a lake where there was a rope swing, went 4-wheeling, got raspberry shakes at La Beau's (the best shakes in the world!!!) went boating and water-skiing, played lots of games and ate lots of food. (There was no volleyball tournament this year which was a first in a long time.)
We missed having you all there. Maybe a few more of you can come next year. I have t-shirts for all if you haven't all ready gotten yours.
2 comments:
I can't wait for the t-shirt! I wish we could have been there! I can't believe buffalo blood is no more.......its crazy those young cousins are so old. I love our reunion traditions. Hopefully we can make an appearance next summer. I'm glad it was fun as usual. Love you all!
I was sad that we missed the reunion again... for the third time. Zach has many fond memories of adventures with his cousins at the reunion. But I have to admit, I feel like it was meant to be that I missed the Harry Potter themed inauguration -- because I am just really not into Harry Potter. I'm excited to drink the buffalo puke next summer though!
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