On The Road: Doc Goes to the Jenkins Family Reunion

                I’ve been blessed to be born into a fantastic family. My parents have been married 51 years  and constantly taught us about the love of God. But I was doubly blessed to marry into another extraordinary God-revering family. My husband, Darell Jenkins comes from a large family and each year we have a 3-day reunion with all of his aunts, uncles, cousins and extended family friends and loved ones.

               I know what you’re thinking . . . 3 days of being with family? It’s true, though, we like being together and this family knows how to have fun. So much fun, in fact, that the little plastic gnome we have named, "Doc" insisted on coming with us to the reunion. He doesn't eat much so we agreed, and packed him between the underwear and socks and hit the road.

                For the reunion, the family rents several cabins on the shores of Lake Leon, just outside of Ranger, Texas. We kick off the festivities with a family bingo event on Friday night. This year, all of my sister-in-laws' families were winners, but my immediate family walked away with their usual bingo winnings—Nothing!!! My husband thinks the bingo caller, his cousin Rusty, has it in for him and can somehow see the one number he needs, but refuses to call it. Oh, by the way, Doc didn’t win anything either, but that’s because I didn’t want to spend five dollars on a bingo card for a plastic guy with such a short attention span. Besides, if he had won I don’t think I could have handled that smug, gloating smile of his. Oh wait . . . that's his usual painted-on look that he wears all the time.

                Saturday starts off with biscuits-and-chocolate for breakfast, a famous Jenkins family specialty once served at Grandma Oma’s café. Some of us go cabin to cabin and visit with family members, while some take to the water for boating and fishing. When we caught Doc casting a wistful look out on the water,( see above) we offered to take him for a ride, but he reminded us he had to get to his photo shoot on the chuck wagon. And I do mean an official chuck wagon. See for yourself. Doc likes the shot below because he says the shadow in the background makes him look taller.  Whatever . . .

                Dinner is a family affair and this year two family members, Carol and Odie roped in some of their competition level cook-off friends and made a fantastic dinner of chicken-fried steak, mashed potatoes, pinto beans, homemade honey rolls and peach cobbler with whiskey sauce. Can you tell we’re all from Texas? Yes!! And we're proud of it!

                The family auction is next and is the highlight of the reunion. Family members make or buy nearly 130 items each year to be auctioned off. The auction money goes toward the rental fees for next year. Two very hardworking, gorgeous women have served our family tirelessly over the past several years. Tina (on the left) and Tammie (right) are the accountants, record keepers, and business managers of the family auction, not to mention overall cheerleaders.

                 Don’t we have beautiful women in our family? (Doc told me to write that part, but I totally agree!)  We wanted Doc to pose for the picture, but he refused. We think he was a bit afraid of Romo, the huge, ferocious, teeth-baring dog you see in the picture. Guess it all looks very different from a little gnomes' point of view.


Coming up: Doc goes to church at the reunion.