The Third Annual Gustavus F. Swift Hamburger Challenge

So I haven't posted in a long time, mainly because I have been super stressed out, but now that that is coming to an end, time for more blogging! Wahoo!
This weekend, amid the stress, my family got together at my parents' house to have a memorial service for my grandmother, Veda, who passed away this Thanksgiving. My brother and his girlfriend flew in from Phoenix, one Aunt and Uncle drove in from Cleveland, and the other set came from Virginia. Jeremy picked me up on the side of the road (literally) in Worcester after New Englands, and we headed north to good ole New Hampshire.
We planned a service for Sunday at noon, and it was perfect. Nice and sweet, with a poem from my Aunt Judi and another more lighthearted one from my Dad. My parents and sister had planted a dogwood tree in Veda's memory the week before, so we held
the service in front of that. A few neighbors and friends came too, because Veda was, if anything, fun to be around, and everyone remembers her.
After the ceremony, we held the Third Annual Gustavus F. Swift Hamburger Challenge. It started, as you may have astutely guessed, three years ago with my family and our neighbors the Wiesmans. The parents (Bill and Becky - my parents - and Jim and Elaine - the Wiesmans) were the chefs and the kids were the judges. My father, to my mother's audible surprise, won the competition. We came up with the name in the most random fashion possible: as we the judges sat sequestered away from the chefs, we browsed out of boredom through a book on the history of Clinton, MA and discovered that the founder of the meatpacking industry was one Gustavus F. Swift. We thought it was an appropriate coincidence, hamburgers being made of processed meat and all, and so the challenge was christened.
Last year, Scott, the Wiesmans' son, won the competition with his controversially gourmet topping of honey goat cheese, and I think I came in last because my burger fell apart. This year it became and interstate competition, and the photos shall chronicle the rest.

The judges: me, my brother's girlfriend Lyndee, Scott, Jeremy, and my Dad.

The contestants, in their official aprons as provided by my mother. From the left: Aunt Lynn, Uncle Joe, Aunt Judi, Uncle Jennings, and my brother Aaron.

Jennings and Aaron prepare to throw down.

The winning burger. Put tomato, mozzarella, and basil on, and I'll vote for anything.

Uncle Joe, the Champion of the Third Annual Gustavus F. Swift Hamburger Challenge, with his prize.