by Kim Van Sickler
You might think my family is a little kooky. That's okay. We've heard it before. One of the things we love to do, and we've done ever since I moved back to the U.S. with a guy who would become my new husband and three additional kids, is meet at my sister's mountain lake home in North Carolina once a year. During our week-long stay, one night is dedicated to a themed costume party. We select the theme the year before. Then we have an entire year to plan our character. In theory. Most of us scramble to select our outfit the week before, although I'm pretty sure my sister and her husband plan their costumes much further ahead because they always look so darn authentic.
We've been doing this now for eleven years. Looking back over our parties, it's amazing to see how the kids have grown and times have changed. I don't have all eleven pictures handy, but here are eight of them.
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| 2014: Theme SNL. Unfortunately neither my husband nor stepson could join us this year. :-( And did we really need three South American Killer Bees? |
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| 2013: Summer of Love. Okay, maybe I beat my sister this year with my costume as a doobie. That's my sister taking a puff of my foot. How cool that Sonny and Cher could stop by. |
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| 2012: Under the Sea. Oooo. Costume faux paus when two Sponge Bobs showed up. The Sponge Bob on the right is standing next to a jellyfish. Next to the jellyfish, all in black, is my brother the oil slick. In front of the oil slick is an oyster, my brother's new girlfriend at the time, who he just married in May 2014. This Lake Lure trip was when my brother first realized he loved that oyster. |
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| 2011: Caveman. Funny how we ended up in distinct tribes based on getting the most mileage out of our fabric. An homage to Cara, my sister's dog who isn't around anymore. |
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| 2008: Cowboy. Fairly conventional, except for my son who decided to go flamboyantly gay for the night. "Cotton Eyed Joe" was a dance favorite. |
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| 2004: Salsa. Mega dancing for this one. My sister and her husband showed us all up because they had been taking salsa lessons. Had to be our worst costume year. |
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| 2003: Roman toga party. This was the year we all jumped off the boathouse roof in our costumes. |
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| 2002: Hawaiian luau. Since this was back before I tore the ACLs of both knees, I was very flexible and killed the limbo. This was also the first and last year that my brother's first wife made an appearance. |
What about you? What is a kooky family tradition of yours?
What a fun family tradition. WOnder if I can talk my family into this??
ReplyDeleteCreative types, especially those who don't have the opportunity to express their creativity in their day jobs, will get into this. The less creative ones will need help, but that's okay. That's what families are for. Even so, there is still that mystery of who is going as what, since we mostly try to keep our characters a secret until the party.
DeleteYou guys rocked the caveman theme!
ReplyDeleteHa, ha. That was one of our better all-around good costume parties, wasn't it?
DeleteYou sure have a creative family. Great costumes. Great fun. A neat idea.
ReplyDeleteI won't even get into the skits we used to perform at the end of the week...
Deletethat is too precious! thanks so much for sharing these treasured memories!! i'm jealous how much fun it looks like!
ReplyDeleteDH and I dressed up as Sonny and Cher for a college party. One thing we do at the main meal at family gatherings is use a set of GB Packers glasses with pictures of great players from the 1960s. Then we have to go around the table and say which player is on our glass. The "prize" if you will is to be Vince Lombardi, because there's only one glass with him on it.
ReplyDeleteHa! True Packer fans!
DeleteWhat FUN! I love to dress in costume. I haven't done it in a while--Halloween used to be my excuse to do that but I haven't even dressed up for Halloween the past few years. It's just fun to be someone else for the day.
ReplyDeleteThat it is!
DeleteThese were all great! You brought back so many wonderful memories with SNL, especially Gilda Radner's Lisa character! What a fun family you have! I would love to crash one of your costume parties!
ReplyDeleteJulie
Ha! I didn't even think of that one! The character you saw as Lisa is supposed to be Molly Shannon as Mary Katherine Gallagher. Ah, the challenge of trying to impersonate someone. :-)
DeleteI love this tradition and that everyone is so into it! The SNL is funny-I forgot about the bees and love Under the Sea. Since I am an ABBA fan you should do Abba:) Now who would dare to waer the Voulez-Vous outfits-electric blue spandex one suits! I wish I had something kooky that is traditional but all I have are some kooks for friends:)
ReplyDeleteThose spandex suits would be hot for NC in the summer. Not sure if I'd have any takers for that. It's great fun having kooks for friends!
DeleteWOW!!!! I love this. Look at those kids grow up right before our very eyes...and in costume too. You aren't weird. Your family is awesome.
ReplyDeleteOMGoodness! You have the funnest family ever! I want to do this!!!
ReplyDeleteYou have shared very interesting post about costume parties!! I would suggest that you must hire party planner for arrangements as they offer wide range of choices and options. Our planner cuts our work to half and all arrangements are always superb.
ReplyDelete