Last year, my mom Judy Starnes, rented out the camp at Fort Hill Christian Youth Camp for our immediate family to get together during New Year’s weekend. We had a great time!

This year, we did it again, and it was just as relaxing, and enjoyable. I felt like when we were all kids and living at home with mom and dad again (with 8 extra kids)! I hope to get some of the weekend photos up soon.

On Friday, December 30th,  most of us headed down to camp, just south-east of Hillsboro, OH. My family met mom and dad at the Ponderosa in Hillsboro for lunch around 11:30. Rachel did some final Krogering, and we had our camper in tow mostly for storage and all the things we were bringing. We got to camp around 1:30 and began to unpack and set-up. We got what is normally the counselor’s cabins for the family, more of a mini hotel on site. Then a lot of time was spent getting the ‘great room’ ready for the kid’s Wii, food set out, tables and chairs out of the way, and of course, a fire started.

My brother Levi, his wife Lauren, and their two kids arrived shortly thereafter as did my sister Carrie, her husband James and their two boys. We got their gear moved in and set-up. Levi and I headed over to the ‘game room’ where this year we had access to ping-pong tables that were set-up and working! Last year they were there, but not set-up and in the recreation area, so we could not use them. I didn’t know my brothers were good at ping-pong, but as the weekend would hold, we all were pretty good. Even my brother-in-law James, who said he’d never played before, quickly got into the games and did very well. A testimony of his wood-working hand skills!

My other brother Casey, his wife Sherry, and their two kids arrived later that evening. So glad they could make it as Sherry has been having a VERY tough year with her health, not sickness, but with problems that have been very hard on her.

For the rest of the day, we floated between the basketball court for corn hole, basketball, and football, the game room, the kitchen, and the great room. We got my kids Katie and James in the game room, and I played some ping-pong with them. They seem to have the gene too! At one point, the kids all put the three ping-pong tables together for an extra-wide table for many of them to play at once. I have to admit, it was fun to have 6 people play the game at once!

My sister brought their PlayStation with a new game with microphones where you try to sing in tune, and on time, with songs from the 80s, 90s, rock, and country. I can hold a tune fine, and sing pretty well, but she killed us all who tried to beat her. Points are added for tonal accuracy, timeliness, sustained notes, and voice recognition – tough game, but fun! Levi killed us all (laughing) by a heavy dose of an 80s song with more vocal power and vibrato than I’d ever heard from him! Still laughing!

Dad spent the weekend stocking and re-stocking the fireplace, though the temperatures were over 40 until Sunday. Mom and Rachel worked non-stop in the kitchen cooking and cleaning. Probably a bit too much on Friday, but we tried to help more the rest of the weekend, and do less playing.

Saturday after breakfast of mom’s famous pitas (scrambled eggs, bacon, cheese on a split pita) we headed up to the top of Fort Hill, a huge Hopewell native American encampment from around 100BC – 500AD where they would meet from around the region for reasons unknown. Likely for religious, spiritual, or cultural meetings. It is a VERY steep hike to the top, but once there, the embankments and ground work is still impressive. It took about 2 hours for this, then we headed back to camp tired, but ready for our ‘main meal’ preparation, dinner, and gift exchange.

My other brother, Travis and his wife Julie arrived before we got back. We had a great meal and some fun in our gift exchange. Thanks to all for that! Some stayed up playing games or talking by the fireplace until the time change of 2011-2012, but the rest of us crashed.

Sunday morning we woke up to warm temperatures. We had breakfast and started packing. We met for  a short church service with almost all family in attendance. We did some songs, had prayers, communion, and a short lesson from 1 Corinthians. Then we got some photos and everyone left.

It was a great time! Thanks to all my family for making it out, especially some who were not feeling great.