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January 29, 2004
Dear Ma G and Ma P,
Being raised in the eastern part of Wisconsin and marrying someone raised in
western Wisconsin, I am aware there are some slight differences in how
events are held. For example, people in the eastern part of the state blow
up fireworks on New Year's Eve while people in the western part of the state drop
carp from a crane. We have carp on the eastern part of the state but
we are not as inventive as the folks in the western part of the state for using
them.
This year having a digital camera I was able to try to capture some of the similarities
and differences between Christmas in both parts of the state. The
Patterson's held their 2004 Wisconsin Christmas on December 26 while the
Garnsworthy's held their 2004 Wisconsin Christmas on December 29. The
photos from the Patterson side in Hustisford are not as good a quality as
the ones from the Garnswothy side in Prairie du Chien. (In fact, after
reviewing these photographs, I can state with confidence that they make the term
'amateur' look bad.) The photographer
was learning as he traveled across the state on how to run the camera and so
that is why the improvement in picture quality. The pictures are hidden
under links that you will need to click on in order to see the picture
underneath. I also added text to the photos to help you figure out what
the photo was supposed to be about.
Before I get started with the photographs perhaps it would be a good idea to
identify who participated and who did not at these family get togethers.
Jean, Laura, Amy, and I attended both events.
Hustisford
Attended
- Steve, Sharon, Josh, Tanya, Justin Patterson and Tanya's boyfriend
from across the street. Actually, he is not exactly across the
street. He lives down the road and his heifers march up and down the
fence line looking into Steve and Sharon's windows from across the road with
a mournful stare.
- David Patterson and Karen McQuery. We were real proud of Dave
because he was only 30 minutes late. Karen brought along her dog
Sophie to protect us from the heifers across the street.
Absent
- Brian and Christine Patterson, Kianna, and Michael. They
needed to choose between the Patterson Holiday and the Fredenberg
Holiday which occurred on the same day. They chose to stay in Sun
Prairie with the Fredenbergs.
- The Florida People. Ma P, Dale, Diane, Eric, Brett Henrich
Prairie du Chien
Attended
- Stan, Sue, Chris, Jennifer Garnsworthy. It was a surprise to see
Jenny because she was not supposed to return from her round the world gallivanting
until mid-January 2005. She visited Australia, New Zealand, and
Korea. She was one location better than her parents and her brother
who only visited Australia and New Zealand. Of course when she was visiting
Korea her parents and her brother were skydiving in northern
Wisconsin. I guess she had a fairly tough choice between sky diving in
Wisconsin or visiting a boyfriend in Korea who is serving in the Army.
She apparently opted for staying on the ground rather than watching the
ground coming to her after diving out of airplane.
- Keith, Jane, and Hannah Butler and Hannah's biological sister
Elizabeth. Hannah is five and Elizabeth is six. Elizabeth fit
right in fighting with her sister and worrying about how many presents she
could open.
- Randy, June, Kelsey Hoeger and Kelsey's friend from La Crosse.
Kelsey, Kelsey's friend, and Amy were the other younger age group that
stayed together during the festivities.
Absent
- Luke and Angie Jacobs-Angie is June's daughter and she was married a few
months before the get together. They visited Prairie earlier in
the month and did not want to trek from Oshkosh again.
- Heather Enke-Heather is also June's daughter and unfortunately had to work
that day.
Attending both holiday festivities, I can say there were some commonality and
some diversity between the both of them.
Security
The food in both Hustisford and Prairie was guarded very well.
Lieutenant Colonel Jennifer (I raise her up a pay grade every time I talk or
write to her) and Uncle Keith, La Crosse County Homeland Security guy, guarded
the food in Prairie. Uncle Randy was
deputized by Uncle Keith to watch the food while he took undercover
videos. Sophie guarded the
food in Hustisford. Steve and Sharon's dog, Reggie,
volunteered to also guard the food but was instead kept outside to guard the
house from the lonesome heifers located
across the street. (I messed up and did not get a photo of the heifers so
you will just have to believe me.) Uncle
Keith also tried to record all of the events in Prairie to keep a permanent
record of it for training purposes of his homeland security La Crosse County
force.
Christmas Trees
Both Christmas trees in either location were green--a good color for
Christmas trees. The Hustisford
Christmas tree did not have experience as much wear and tear as the Prairie
du Chien tree because all of the kids in
Hustisford were of middle school, high school, or college age. The Prairie
du Chien Christmas tree had a little more wear and tear and was a little
different before and after
the present destruction. You can see the tilt to this tree which vouches
for the activity near it. In fact, there were so many presents that we
actually lost Hannah and Elizabeth for
a period of ten minutes under that tree.
Post Christmas Presents
Ample post Christmas presents existed in both Hustisford and Prairie du Chien.
The Prairie du Chien present opening occurred at night while the Hustisford
present opening occurred during the afternoon.
The Hustisford present opening had a significant challenge because there were
a number of good football games being played coincidentally at the same time of
this event. Uncle Steve struggled between
opening his present and watching the
football game. Amy was near
him to help him open his present. I must say that Hustisford was very well
organized because Sharon trained
us on the proper disposal of the wrapping paper after it was ripped off the
presents.
The Prairie du Chien event was a little more chaotic. The outlaws, the
people that married into the Garnsworthy clan, tried to stay on the sideline as
much as possible. Uncle Keith, Aunt
Sue, and I resided on a couch and tried to stay as quiet as possible.
There was not enough room on the couch for all of the outlaws so Uncle
Randy watched from across the room.
Auntie Jane worked the night before and
so was rather tired. Hannah,
on the other hand, was not tired and tried to invigorate her mother.
Hannah also volunteered to help her
cousins, especially Kelsey, open their presents and stay focused during the
present opening.
Food
I know this may be hard to believe but no one starved at either Hustisford or
Prairie du Chien.
Ma G knows this because she was able
to sit down for 15 seconds and eat some of the food she prepared. We had
constant food during the proceedings.
Hustisford also had food but slightly different challenges. For
example, there was a little more beer available and so people like Justin,
a senior in high school, had to fight off the temptation to imbibe. Tanya,
being the concerned older sister, quickly made a plate of food up for her
brother so that the evil brew did not pass through his lips. Sharon
did an excellent job in keeping plates full.
After Food
Small differences existed in the post-food time period. These
differences existed more because of the time of day than the amount of activity
or lack of activity.
In Prairie du Chien, people like Uncle
Stan and Amy sat around and relaxed. The
cousins, like Chris and Laura, were able to
talk about common subjects such as shopping at Super Walmart.
We had a round table discussion in
Hustisford. Uncle
Dave sat at the head of the table but did not volunteer to pay any of his
brother Steve's bills. Tanya discussed
the heifer situation with her boyfriend. Uncle
Steve started talking politics--you can always tell this because he begins
pointing to phantom objects. Josh wants
to be a sportscaster after he obtains his college degree and so practiced
announcing who was speaking at the table. Jean
hid behind a rose and people had difficulty determining what was the rose
and what was Jean. (Do you think this comment will help me out on Valentine's
Day? Probably not.)
Differences
I think the biggest difference between Prairie du Chien and Hustisford hinged
on relationships. Prairie du Chien was reunion capital of the world during
our time there. The other difference between the two venues was sibling rivalry--existing in
Prarie du Chien and not in Hustisford. The three Garnsworthy sisters picked on
their poor brother.
Last year we had a reunion on the eastern part of the
state with the Florida and Wisconsin Patterson relation and so this was the year
for reunions in the western part of the state. You may also think the
Pattersons were also raised to never pick on siblings but it had more to do with
a lack of opportunity because the people that are picked on were located in Sun
Prairie and Florida and not in Hustisford.
We had two reunions in Prairie du Chien. Hannah
and her biological sister, Elizabeth were reunited. Jenny
was reunited with her little brother Chris. Jenny
was also reunited with her mother, which greatly pleased her mother.
Poor Uncle Stan; he got dissed by his sisters. The four outlaws watched
with interest from the sidelines. Uncle Stan has to suffer under two
disadvantages. His first disadvantage is his birthday coincides with the
Christmas season and so he has to endure bad birthday singing and jokes about the
number of candles that should be placed on his cake. His second
disadvantage was the purchase of property in Rusk County before Christmas.
Uncle Stan indirectly purchased hunting land from an Amish farmer. His
sisters wanted to make sure he fit in when he traveled down to his land with
attire, music, and poetry. Uncle Stan had no defense this year against his
sisters and he was very apprehensive
when he was handed his present. He
listened intently as his sisters read him two
poems (the picture blames Auntie Jane but it appears to be a picture of
Auntie Jean's hands) and then he opened his gift in much
anticipation. The box
contained attire (hat, suspenders, pants, shirt) which should allow him to
blend in with his Amish neighbors. Uncle Stan was also given a song which
is a parody of
the Amish by Weird Al Yankovich. Uncle Stan was impressed by his sisters'
inventiveness but vowed that next
year he would make it up to his sisters because no good deed goes unpunished.
So that is my report on the Christmas experiences at Hustisford and Prairie
du Chien. Not every picture taken was of low quality. I chose four
of medium quality so that you can appreciate the better quality. I chose
two from Hustisford and two from Prairie
du Chien.
Your son and son-in-law
Ralph
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