This is one of the most fun and amazing posts I've EVER read!

Kudos for bringing forth your own whacked out gifts, and encouraging them in your kids, and no doubt in theirs as well. You seem like a fun group to hang with, and besides, normal is not only overrated, it doesn't really exist anyway. Normal is a range. (Or is that deranged?) ;-)

Your clan reminds me of my friends Beqi and Boo in Florida. Sisters, Boo has been a working artist since the 70s, Beqi owns a hair salon on the beach, and their kids are all creatives of one sort or another, smart, hilarious, and they're all a blast to hang out with.

We used to put on a haunted house every year for charity, which Boo actually started in the 70s, as a way to provide kid-safe Halloween activities for her own kids when they were little. Over the years, they got nearly their whole neighborhood involved.

It grew and grew over the years, until literally dozens of people helped put it on each year, and all the money went to provide Christmas gifts and dinners for underprivileged kids who would otherwise not have a Christmas. Even once a formal charity was formed, the Board of Directors are still all volunteers, and every cent that is donated goes to the kids.