The past week was a somewhat typical tornado for the Hectic Clan. We had out-of-town visitors at the Hectic Manor…but this time it meant that all eight of my kids were here! It’s the first time in years that we’ve all been together, and while the sleeping arrangements were a bit cramped, the meals were raucous, and the talk was loud and deep into the night, I wouldn’t have changed it for the world.

Starting Thursday we had people arriving, so I made a meal plan in advance to cover as many family favorites as possible. I didn’t get much help on my shopping run, so I get to count the shopping, unloading for checkout, loading into the car, unloading from the car, and stowing as my workout for Thursday, right?

The photo is the back of our GMC Acadia with the 3rd row of seats folded down. While it looks like I bought enough for a small army, I had to make trips to the store on Saturday, Sunday, and again on Monday to feed our crew. Much to my surprise I actually under-planned on how much food they would eat.

Kabobs Prior to Grilling

Kabobs on the Grill

Kabobs on the Table

One of our first meals consisted of kabobs. Shrimp, Beef, Chicken and Fruit Kabobs were on the menu. Whoever had the idea that making kabobs for 16+ people ought to be shot! Unfortunately, I didn’t really think about how long it takes to prep, skewer, and cook that much food. If I’d thought it through, I would have come up with some other method of preparation that might have led to the same result without the huge amount of work. You see…I’m the family cook, so none of the kids really thought about helping out. I enjoyed making all the meals during the weekend, I’d just forgotten about how much work it actually is.

With all but one of the Hectic Clan here, we started off Saturday morning with a charity Superhero run. Sadly, I couldn’t find any of my superhero shirts…so I wore my Grateful Dad shirt. The run was a 5K and was a bit of a challenge, not so much for the running, rather for the weather. We had an unexpected cold snap and had to run in weather that hovered in the upper 40’s F (about 9C). We weren’t quite ready for that! While my time was pretty typical of my 5k runs lately, I was actually pleased that I did as well as I did, considering the weather. As you can see from the photo, we had an awful lot of superheroes, and despite Edna Mode’s warnings…we had capes!

We followed the run by hot dogs, bratwurst, and hamburgers on the grill. This was another challenge for me, since my legs were tired from the run…but my history of burning rather than grilling now requires that I stand by the grill while the food cooks. I actually had to call on my cell phone into the house to direct the table setting and other food preparation, but that was vastly preferable to burned food.

Again, I anticipated that I’d made enough food for that meal as well as half of the next meal. I figured we’d eat shish kabob leftovers coupled with the leftovers from grill session two for dinner. Little did I know that I was feeding such a hungry group. There was nothing left over when we got done!

To cap our weekend, Hectic Grandson was baptized. The entire Hectic Clan was in attendance, along with two significant others. It was a fitting culmination to an amazing weekend. it was so great to have everybody home, even if it was for a day or two. It reminded me of what our family stands for, how we look out for each other, and what it’s like to be around such an amazing group!

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