by Jenni Kenel ’14

Everyone may think that their family is nuts, but they have no idea.

Over Thanksgiving break, my family decided to go to Williamsburg. Yes, we went all the way out to Williamsburg to go to Busch Gardens, an amusement park, for Thanksgiving. We’re an unusual bunch.

On the way there, my brother, 18, started singing “Last Christmas” by George Michael. My father turned to him and asks “Philip, who sings that song?” My brother answers him “Britney Spears.” Yeah, this is what I deal with on a daily basis.

The next morning, my sister Courtney, 20, hit me on the stomach to wake me up. I hit her back. Rule of thumb: never wake a girl when she tends to be violent.

On my way to breakfast I’m half asleep. I walk out of the hotel room and I’m falling all over the hall. Next thing I know I hit a corner. Yes, I walked into the wall, I even have a bruise for proof.

At breakfast we all had very large meals, except for my sister. Why? My brother ate her sausage, bacon, Canadian bacon and chicken. All that was left for my sister was potatoes and eggs. She looked at him and said, “Jenni’s the vegetarian, not me!”

Finally, we got to Busch Gardens. The first thing I see inside the park is a group of Christmas Carolers! Great. I knew it could only go downhill from there. Everywhere I turned there was something Christmas-related! It was the day after Thanksgiving for crying out loud!

As we were leaving, I almost tripped over a kid. Not just any kid though, a red-headed kid. Then I looked over and saw a red-headed family. Not just one kid, but four; not just one parent, but both. The first thing I say to my sister when we get in the car is “Hey Court, I found your real family. All of them had red hair. Four kids and two parents, aren’t you going to go rejoin them?” She glared at me and said “That is exactly why I will never marry a person with red hair.” Instead of just dropping the subject, my mother makes the situation worse by saying, “You don’t want to pass on the disease?”

That’s my family. A bunch of dysfunctional, erratic, irritable, annoying, mean people, and I love them for it.