This weekend was my annual family reunion with my mom’s side of the family. (Which is why it was quiet on the blog this weekend). I love our family get together each summer, it is nice to see people that you do not get to see through out the year all in a large group. We always have a ton of fun even if there is a little family drama (which is never avoidable and sometimes quite comical). We all live rather far from each other, my grandparents are in Virginia, one family is in Maryland, one in North Carolina and then 2 families are in Pennsylvania and then the grandchildren who are older and do not live at “home” any longer are scattered about in places semi-close to their parents. Each year we rotate between 1 of the 5 houses (my grandparents and their 4 kids homes) and this year it was at my parents house.
It is only for 3 days, which at times I wish we were able to have it be for longer because it is so nice to get together with everyone, and sadly not everyone can always make it each year but it is a time that I look forward to each year. We all get to relax and just enjoy one another’s company and catch up on what has been going on through out the year since we last saw each other. Thankfully most of us have facebook and we keep in touch that way and many of my cousins are now more like friends then just cousins and we talk via text and phone calls but having everyone in one place makes it the best.
Our group is fairly large, especially since “the kids” are starting to get married and have kids of their own(well I should say I am the only one of the “kids” with kids, the rest are going on the path of getting married and kids will be in the future). You have my grandparents and then there are their 4 children (my 2 aunts and 2 uncles) and then there are 12 grandchildren (aka “the kids”) and then 3 great grandchildren (my kids). What is really nice is that “the kids” range from me, the oldest at 28 to the youngest who is 10. It is great because my kids have 2 of my cousins that are in their age range to play with and all of them get along great, not a single fight among them this weekend, they all just enjoyed playing with each other, swimming in the pool and having fun.
I do have to say that I think my cousins (the older ones who are around my age) are the best anyone could ask for, they have no children of their own yet they love mine like they are their own. They are willing to get back in kid mode to make my kids happy and put huge smiles on their faces, even if it means getting into the pool or playing a game that my kids made to play with them, when they would really rather just be sitting in a chair relaxing. However I do think that secretly they enjoy acting like little kids too, I know that for me that is one of my favorite things about being a mom is that I can “get into kid mode” and it is ok since I am a Mom;)
This year was a bit different the any other one for me though, it brought back a flashback to when I was a kid at the family reunions over the years. As children my cousins and I had GameBoys and the fun thing for us to do was sit next to each other while playing our games. This year I found it quite comical that my 2 older children and my 2 youngest cousins (who are 12 and 10) sat like my other cousins and I did. Only difference is that now they were playing on Nintendo DS instead of GameBoy. They were running around playing, swimming in the pool and just having fun with each other, just the way my cousins and I did when we were younger. It brought back a ton of memories of me and my cousins at the family reunions in the past when we were those carefree children who were able to just enjoy one another and have fun.
Does your family do family reunions? How often do you meet up? Did you know that July is nicknamed “Family Reunion Month”? It is when most people have their family reunions.
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