By mommie2zs in Gem-Fest — Sep 3, 2024

Gem-Fest T-Shirt History

A Juice t-shirt from the year we each got to pick our own Muppet.

Edits welcome if there are shirts I have forgotten.

It is about time for me to do a great clothing clean out, which made me realize I wanted to remember all the Gem-Fest clothing from over the years.

One year before there was a themed Gem-Fest shirt, our whole family chose to get Muppet t-shirts since Buds and I already had them from the Juice off-site for that year.

Gem-Fest 2015

You can see Buddie's "Starbörks" Swedish Chef T-shirt in the back row.

2017 was the beginning of the matching shirts. One of the sisters-in-law is a graphic designer, and the years she creates the design always has a grouping of 5, I assume for each of the family groups. I love that.

We lost Buddie's T-shirt while we were there, so he had a similar color. We found his shirt in his suitcase when we got home.

2018 a hat was chosen, which is not a good option for our big-brained Buster.

Buster with hat perched precariously on the back right.

2019 we were back to shirts.

John wasn't feeling well, so he had to miss this shot.

2020 we waited out the pandemic.

2021 back to it!

2022 we all went to Italy! The plan was to do a t-shirt post-Gem-Fest, but time got away from us.

2023 we headed to Orlando, with mixed feelings. Monkey boycotted out of support for her many LGBTQIA+ loved ones, and the rest of us weren't too sure we were making the right decision, but we did have a good time.

Uncle Z designed a shirt to send a message.

Monkey from a distance, and a rainbow of love to counteract the Florida hate.

Which brings us to this year, 2024.

I was with Babs in Iowa, so not in the photo this year.

I would be remiss in not including one of our very first attempts at a family photo. This was way back when we were still meeting in the winter. I loved the idea of a matching group photo, and requested everyone bring a white shirt.