Miss Turkeypalooza 2012: the Talent Portion

Turkeypalooza 2012 took place in the not-so-frozen tundra of Elkhorn, Wisconsin. With a balmy first half and frigid second half, I feel privileged to have enjoyed a microscosm of the 4 seasons in Wisconsin in the span of 7 days.

I got a good solid week of paloozing, which I'm really grateful for - it's hard to get around my entire family and feel satisfied with just a day or two. Though I only got that much time with a few siblings anyway, it was still so much fun and so worth it.

And my family and I have had some good paloozas in my lifetime, but the Miss Turkeypalooza Pageant 2012 was rather epic. Consider the following:

I bore my testimony at church the next Sunday (Fast Sunday), and the introduction to my main testimony contained a teaser of the ridiculous amount of fun I had over that week, as I started with, "while I was with my family over Thanksgiving...long story short, we ended up having a talent competition." I appreciated the people I spoke to afterward who recognized the special nature of this event, in that while most families may have a generic talent show, ours was, of course, a competition - complete with a Golden Microphone and other awards. You aren't named Miss TP without putting in a little work.

Here's just a snippet of some of the great performances from the Talent competition - having an acute egomania in one eye, I had to post the video of my competitive number. It wasn't as polished as I'd like, but I thought it held up well enough in the Young Adults pool. My dad of course won the Over 55 pool, with a solid performance in storytelling - he went with a classic that he always shines in. And in the Youth pool, it was a fight to the finish with a great tumbling act, a darling Barbie and the Diamond Castle cover, and a flowing original rap that was buuuuuuuck.

Obviously, the overall winner was one of our young ones, who all were so polished and amazing. Their preparation was evident, and they just seemed really invested in their performances.

Here's a look at some of the highlights, which you might have missed:

Walter, Over 55 competition:


Kate, Young Adult competition:


Ben & Laura sang "The Confrontation" from Les Miserables, but my recorded version of it is a little dark, so it didn't turn out well - so here's a substitute. It basically sounded like this anyway (this is awesome, right?!):

Taken from this awesome Vulture blog post - you'll want to keep up with it this month)

I'm awaiting the rights to my niece's sweet rap, so that video is hopefully to come. We'll see.

Basically though, my family is like America's Got Talent: Best Of edition. So many exciting and varied acts! How can you choose a winner amongst them all??

Another niece ultimately took home the Golden Microphone, but it was well-deserved. A fully committed, pitch-perfect cover of "Connected" from Barbie and the Diamond Castle is hard to beat. A few of my favorite songs may or may not be from that movie anyway. Don't judge.

And the Turkey Talent Competition was only one portion of our Palooza Pageant. We also had the Athletic wear portion, where Lulu the dog and I were faithful runners for the first half of the week - the balmy weather half - and Chris and Caleb were the only ones to follow through and actually run the 5k Turkey Trot (I was just so tired! Staying up until 2am 3 days in a row is rough on a girl's energy levels...though those nights qualify as the question segment of the pageant. Great answers given by all contestants), and the uber-impressive team competition, in which the Barlows laid the smack down in volleyball against the visiting team of another family. I mean, we're just kind of naturally talented in sports, so it's hard for us to play and not just whoop other people silly in these kinds of situations...#humblebrag.

Did I mention we also had a sing-along? That's new for the Barlow crew, but we even rocked that - case in point: Adele's "Set Fire to the Rain." We brought the house down on that song, if only for the two chorus lines that were all most of us knew...we sang our hearts out for those two lines. Props to Jodi for being a wonderfully talented accompanist on the piano I covet when I'm sitting around my piano-less house.

And, in the evening wear portion of the Palooza Pageant, it was just no contest - little Libby Lou Who was stunning in her glass slippers and her gown, which was made by friendly mice and tame birdies. She also dazzled in her tutus, as did the other balletwear-obsessed nieces.

Despite great showings by all 23 contestants, I'm proclaiming Miss TurkeyPalooza 2012 to be...

Miss Lulu Snaggletooth Barlow!

Because how do you deny such a sweetheart top honors? Lulu wins best in show for deciding we need to be besties all week, and for following me everywhere, and for making me want a dog for the first time in my life. That's pretty impressive.

Well, folks, thanks for tuning in. Such a great Miss TurkeyPalooza pageant this year. Thanks to everyone for showing up and stepping up. So many pictures of fun times that I'm wading through, trying to organize. I love when the Barlows unite. We're all winners here!

The lovely Youth pool contestants wish you and yours sweet dreams filled with pink snuggles and photo-bombing cheeses.

P.S. Remember when youngest contestant Zoey played coy all week long with everyone and then, right as Barlows Rolla were getting ready to rolla out, she came to me and gave me the sweetest snuggle, complete with her head on my shoulder, and made everyone jealous because she loved me the most?? I remember that. That made the highlight reel.