The Anstead Family celebrated their 51st reunion in Champaign, Illinois over the weekend of June 22 – 24, 2001.

This year, family members arrived throughout the week prior to the reunion. But the reunion festivities didn’t officially kick off until Friday evening.

Friday, Kristine and Alan Chalifoux (along with their wonderful children Madeleine and Ryan) welcomed all the Ansteads to their beautiful restored home and garden. It was such a beautiful evening and almost everyone pulled up a chair in the garden to mix and mingle.

We were all surprised at the budding entrepreneurs in our family. Megan Shiffler and Erika Anstead were marketing nails (yes…bent, rusty nails!) to all in attendance. It started out small, but eventually we witnessed dollar bills being exchanged! Buzz Ziegler was nice enough to buy wife Faye one for a souvenir, leading to his summary of the evening, "I got nailed at the Anstead Family Reunion!" Oh, Buzz!!

We had a wonderful dinner of lasagna, salad, and bread, with brownies and cookies for dessert. Many thanks go out to Jim and Therese Shiffler for contributing the lasagna!

Saturday morning, Kristine arranged a guided tour of the Prairie Preserve with a local naturalist. Everyone who attended was amazed at his passion for the flora and fauna of the prairie.

Throughout the day on Saturday, Ansteads could be found taking in many of the sites in and around Champaign. One of the biggest attractions was the railroad museum in nearby Monticello. Here, visitors were able to view vintage pieces of railroad equipment, as well as take a 50-minute train ride through the country.

Saturday evening was our big cookout at Crystal Lake Park. Jim Shiffler (with assistance at various times from about every man in attendance!) fired up the grill and cooked up hamburgers, bratwurst, and hotdogs. Again, thanks to Jim and Therese for contributing the burgers and brats! We had lots of side salads and desserts, as well as our traditional reunion cake. We concluded the evening with our annual family meeting (see details inside).

Come Sunday morning, there were still more events going on. The Ansteads attended mass together at Holy Cross Catholic Church, and then returned to Kristine and Alan’s house for brunch. There were pastries, fruit, and Mary Anstead’s Sausage Strata. We all had an opportunity to say our good-byes until next year.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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