We call my
husband “Mr. Christmas.” He truly enjoys the holiday and loves
decorating every square inch of our home – inside and out. One
guest at our annual Christmas Party, after exiting the overly
decorated bathroom, asked if we could possibly have any MORE
decorations. I wondered if we “overdo”. Gary, of course, thinks
we can never do enough.
I love his holiday spirit. He single-handedly transforms our
Florida home into a Winter Wonderland (complete with snow!) I have
only one duty – reorganize the house to accommodate his displays.
The problem arises AFTER the holidays when I am forced to remember
where I temporarily stored all the stuff that needed to be hidden
away.
I reach under the beds, peek inside the closets and check every
cabinet. The remote control? In the top dresser drawer. The
ping-pong paddles? In a box on the closet floor. The keyboard
stand? Folded up behind the bookshelf. Gary does not get
involved. He doesn’t try to find the stored items. And he
certainly does not put any of it away. (After all, if he can’t
remember where we keep the game room remote the REST of the year,
why would I expect him to know where to put it after the holidays???!!!)
But since he does all the decorating -- and all the un-decorating --
I don’t mind the small inconvenience caused by this change in
routine. Sooner or later I'll find a place for everything.
It was during this annual hide-and-seek ritual that my sister,
Cathy, told me she couldn’t locate the “Leader
Board” on our family website. She had played our most recent
game and wanted to see how she scored, but had forgotten to bookmark
the page. Apparently she, too, was experiencing difficulty finding
things around the house. Presuming others may be having similar
problems, I felt this would be a good time to walk our readers
through the rooms of the Spiker Family Gathering Place letting you
know where I've placed all the stuff you may have been missing (like
Gary's game room remote.)
Finding your favorite things may be easier if you understand how
everything is organized. You see, my goal in building this site was to create a place where our family
could easily get together in one location, similar to the way we do
at the annual reunions (but more frequently and without the long
drive.) And since the reunions are almost always held at the
Spiker Farm, it made sense to build the site's navigational
structure on this familiar foundation -- you can "stroll from
room to room" in our "home" and "venture out to the garden."
So the first thing to do when you arrive at our "house" is to
"grab the Gazette" from the
Newspaper Box. This is where you'll learn about any new
additions or updates to the site, (such as when we change the Leader
Board) in addition to announcements about what has been going on in
our "neighborhood." Then just tuck the newspaper under your
arm and head inside...
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Some "household items" are easy to find. For obvious reasons,
the recipe cards from our family cookbook are in the Kitchen.
The card catalogue of books written by, and about, our family is in
the
Library. (Personal note to Gary: also for obvious
reasons, the game room remote is in... the game room.)
Many other common "household items" are scattered about the
Living Room. Here you'll
find a calendar of events hanging on the "wall", several photo albums
stacked on the
"coffee table", and links to family member's personal websites
organized on the "computer." This room is also where we gather
to play some of
our favorite family games. (Note to Cathy: you can find the
Leader Board here.)
For those that are tired of being cooped up in the house all day,
how about a stroll through the Spiker Family
Garden? Due to its meandering paths, you may not
immediately notice how many varieties of "plants" are grown here.
However, you can get a "birds-eye" view of the landscape by climbing
the Spiker Family Tree.
Actually, there are two trees -- a smaller one where each "leaf" reveals photos and interesting facts about Jake,
Gay and their children, and a much larger one
introducing the entire Spiker clan from the "roots to the canopy."
Don't forget to read the signs that are posted throughout the
garden. Visitors are shown how they can get the kids involved
in planting new seeds and how
everyone can get involved to help
maintain healthy trees. And we even have a section dedicated
exclusively to heirloom plantings
that you won't want to miss.
Of course, no garden would be complete without a few "gardening tools"
-- genealogy gardening tools, that
is. This is where we share some of our favorite genealogy
sites on the Internet.
One final note about our "home"....just like the "real" Spiker house,
our "virtual" house is maintained, updated and cleaned through the
group efforts of our family. If you see a little dust...in
the form of broken or outdated links...let me know and I'll polish
away the smudges. If you have an old lamp you're willing to
donate...in the form of historical insight we'd be interested in
learning more about...I'll help you shed some light on the subject
by printing your recollections here. And, of course, we'd love
to add your pictures, recipe cards and stories to our growing
collection of books.
I hope this tour has helped you spot some of the "furnishings" we've
stashed in the corners of our house. But if you ever need help
finding a particular item, just
let me
know and I'll walk you to the right place to find it. (Now
if I can only find where Gary took the game room remote...)
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Submitted by Melanie Fouse -- Rachel (Finally) delivered baby
number four, Caden Scott, on December 9. 
Submitted by Jean Spiker -- Shaun and Rikki will soon make Jeff
and Jean the proud grandparents of THREE. As soon as we learn when Derek and Thomas may expect their new brother or sister,
we'll let you know.
Submitted by Willa Dean Spiker -- Boots is home recovering from
her recent surgery. Tests on the mass removed from her brain
revealed there is no cancer.