Once again Gayle and Stephen Bathon opened their hearts, and the doors of their grand old house at the end of Winchester Street in Warrenton, Virginia, to their brothers and sisters, their wives, husbands, partners, their children, and their wives, husband, partners, and their children, and their.........well, wait until next time . If that sounds like a lot of people..........it certainly is. Nobody bothered to count, but there were certainly well over sixty of us.

From the Midwest, and from all up and down the East Coast, we started to arrive late on Tuesday, and by late morning on Wednesday the semipermanent football game, a natural feature of any event attended by Bohlingers and Morrises -less distinguished for their intellectual pursuits than Bathons, in the opinion of the Bathons , but boy can they punt, pass and kick- had started, and the great triannual Bathonathon was well under way.

Let's take a look at this phenomenon in a bit more detail:

Steve Bohlinger captained Team A until his fierce rushes through center were repeatedly stopped by Jimmy Maglione (red shirt).

David Morris was the captain of Team B until he was demoted due to complaints by a team member ("Cut that out, Uncle Dave" )

Kevin O'Neill was placed in charge of the cannon. Megan and Maggie were asked to keep a close eye on him. The...eh...cannon, you ask? A cannon on the football field? Why..... it's Stephen's house, after all, and quite possibly a large bear might come wandering by and need to be instantly killed.

Various onlookers --Morrises and Gamaches, Owen O'Neill, the excellent Sam Bathon and his mom Adicia, Judy and the Magliones. "Judy and the Magliones" despite the similarity in appearance is not the well-known rhythm combo of the same name.

Finally, it was over and people started wandering off to find a fireplace to sit next to, leaving only a couple of kids in front of the pool house. Wait -- that's John Morris and Jim Maglione comparing their scouting reports for next year's game.

Thanksgiving 2005