Do you have family reunions?

[old medic]

What to you consider a reunion? As kids, Everyone would gather at the grandparents house for Easter and Christmas. I'm talking 6 family's with kids, ultimately there was 26 cousins. We still do the same, but its now Ma that's the grandmother, but there only 7 cousins.
As far as what we call a reunion, Ma's 2 sides has held a reunion every year since before I was born. There always held around July 4th in NY and we try to make it every other year or so. We use it to plan a 2-3 week vacation. Its not uncommon to have over 100 folks there.
This year we had a very special reunion planed, As Ma turn 80 would be there with all her Brothers and sisters, and we had all of her kids, grandkids and 3 great grand kids But my accident pulled me out.

 

[target2019]

No reunions for my side. She has had a few of them.

I had 4 brothers and she 3 sisters. We see the ones left at least once a year. But our children are widely-dispersed, so reunions are very difficult.

This year we had a marriage and a baby shower. I was let down when too many missed both events, but that's life.

Any day I wish to, I can open up our genealogy program and file folders and have a reunion with any of the 2600 families stored.

 

[pjigar]

Funny you mentioned this. We had our first ever family reunion this past summer (wife side: 40 people). My side reunion is coming up in January. We mostly enjoyed it. Everyone agreed to continue once a year reunion. Let's see how it goes. The one is summer was held at a cabin on a mountain. Some planning and work required but everyone chipped in. The one in January is going to be at our place.

I think reunions in general are fast paced and personally, I need even more time to enjoy them. We have done several with my college friends. We love reunions. YMMV.

 

[athena53]

When I was a kid we had reunions with Mom's side of the family, driving from NE Ohio to Erie, PA. It was at least a couple of hours' drive to Presque Isle but Lake Erie was a Big Deal. There were always new babies (in cloth diapers ) and women running around trying to prepare food and clean up in a picnic shelter. And pit toilets. Fun times. I think we eventually got too dispersed.

My 4 siblings live in the Carolinas (one PT in FL). I still drive there twice a year, checking with everyone to see what works, and they have a gathering. Mom died in 2017 and Dad in 2021 and he'd said his fondest wish was that we'd still be talking to each other after he and Mom were gone- and we do. There are some widely differing religious and political views but we agree on a lot of common issues and no one gets hot under the collar.

 

[Venturer]

Not any more for us. I was the only child of my parents before they split. My grandmother basicly raised me, and Dad came around seldom. I have 4 half brothers from Dad and 1 half brother and sister from mom. I was kind of the redheaded stepchild on both sides since I was the oldest I mostly did for myself. After Dad died we tried haveing a get together more often and we hosted several of them but then covid stopped them and we never have picked it up again. My step mom is 94 still in good health over all but I was never really close to her so we go by and see her every once in a while. The only time any of my 1/2 siblings call us is if they are wanting something,so we don't socialize with them either. I figure when my stepmom passes the whole estate will be divided amoung her children from both her marriages and I'll still be the step child.

 

[Teacher Terry]

My entire family lives in Wisconsin so had yearly ones that I attended when I lived there. I have been gone 33 years and it’s not important enough for me to fly across the country. I still visit Wisconsin and see my friends and the family that’s important to me.

 

[O2Bfree]

Never had any sort of reunion until a few years before covid when one of my second cousins got his aunts and a few cousins together. I hadn't seen most of them in decades, and it was fun to attend. One year the reunion doubled as my mom's 90th birthday party. But then my second cousin's wife had a fallout with his mom, who is an alcoholic. Things got worse when the wife had a baby and didn't want grandma to spend time with him, so the reunion didn't happen one year. Then covid hit, shutting it down for two more years.

This year one of my cousins moved to Idaho and invited everyone out there. Well, everyone except the second cousin and his wife and their little son. DH and I were happy to drive out because we wanted to check out the Post Falls area too. We had a good time visiting and made plans to connect with one cousin and her husband who are living the nomadic life and would be up in our area over the summer.

I text a couple of my cousins occasionally now, and am thinking of inviting the alcoholic cousin out for breakfast or something because she lives in a retirement place just a couple miles from us and I know money is tight for her. It feels a little awkward though because I'm not sure I want to be seen as available to help her out should some health crisis occur because we're nearby while her son is about 30 minutes away. I don't think she'd ever ask for money, but that could be an issue too.

 

[pacergal]

When younger, yes, every 2-3 years for both Mom and Dads side.
As we got older, my folks still went back and I did rarely as I couldn't afford it. Did go back for grandmas 90th and 100th birthday.
After Mom died, my siblings and I accompanied Dad back to visit his Mom every summer. My Moms side relatives would travel to where we were to visit.
And then after Grandma and Dad both passed within a couple years of each other, my siblings and I went back one more time to spread ashes. That was our last reunion of our parents group of cousins.

My immediate family of sibs/spouse/kids/grands get together at Christmas every year.
DH has one sibling left and we see her a couple times year.

 

[rk911]

Nope. No family left to have a reunion.

 

[mountainsoft]

I don't bother with school reunions either. Those would seem to be worse.

I have never attended a school reunion. I have no desire to meet with people I barely knew. I moved around a lot as a kid, so I rarely spent more than 2-3 years with any group of classmates.

Heck, even my closest friends from school have never reached out to me. I tried contacting a few but that never went anywhere beyond hello. My best friend in high school was the best man at my wedding, but other than seeing his posts on Facebook we haven't spoken in many, many years.

Suits me fine. I really don't feel comfortable in large groups of people, no matter the celebration. I can tolerate one or two people at a time, but beyond that I can't wait to escape.

 

[pb4uski]

Our HS graduating class has had class reunions like clockwork every 5 years. DW was our senior class VP and I was a nobody. We are one of two married couples left from our graduating class of 345. We have attended every class reunion except the 10th because her brother was getting married and we helped organize some of the early ones.

We had or 50th reunion this year. We had 170 people there and because of inclement weather were packed elbow-to-elbow inside when the plan was to be both inside and outside. ~40 people ended up getting covid. Nice thing is that some of our teachers were there was well.

I really only have one close friend from high school and we became friends after high school though we knew each other during high school. I can tolerate my HS classmates for a few hours every 5 years and even somewhat enjoy it now. DW is more of a social butterfly and more into it.

This last reunion was interesting in that I would guess that about 10% of our classmates were almost instantly recognizeable and the remainder were in the vaguely looks familiar category. I was glad that everyone had nametags with our HS pictures on them.

My only beef is that we have been to the same facility that is owned by one of our classmates for the last 3 class reunions and I would like to go somewhere different but not so much that I'm willing to volunteer to help organize it.

 

[Kork13]

Growing up, we only had a couple real family reunions, surrounding legitimately 'big deal' events. For example, in 2003 we did a huge family reunion with scores of family members spanning 4 branches of 4 generations when my great grandmother turned 100 y/o. Each of her children, their children, their children, and in a few cases, their children. It was cool. Not to mention the fact that it also happened to be Harley Davidson's 100yr anniversary, so the local chopper shop emptied the store, picked her up from our party, and cruised my nigh-ancient great grandmother around town, escorted by the 100+ y/o classic fire engine. Unforgettable.

By contrast, DW's (large, 6 siblings + kids) immediate family does a mini-reunion seemingly every year, or more often when they can ... and ropes in extended family whenever possible. I mostly like her family well enough, but those things are always .... challenging ... Way too high of expectations, a couple of toxic/controlling personalities, and guilt for weeks if it doesn't go as desired .... woof. My immediate family, by contrast? We're doing pretty good to get all 3 of us brothers + dad (and spouses/kids) under a single roof once every 5 years.

 

[rodi]

My side... super small, but we see them at least once a year. My mom was an only child, so no aunts/uncles/cousins on that side. My dad had one sister and we have 3 cousins through her. My sister and I go every year, usually right after Thanksgiving. Since our aunt is getting up in years, we make this a priority.

On my husbands side... Bigger family, bigger gatherings. Every 5 or so years someone will host everyone for Thanksgiving, or they'll meet up at the Jersey shore. But with everyone with busy lives it's been at least 10 years since all my husband's siblings were together outside of a funeral. We've also got extended family (on hubby's side) in Sicily... we visit every 4 years, and all the 2nd cousins get together.

 

[Badger]

Outside of the immediate family no one was financially able to travel for a reunion and there were few families anyway. Now there is nobody left that I know of except for my sister. I have gone to all but one high school reunion but everyone is spread out and not interested in the travel and expense so I doubt I will attend another. I have never been to a college or graduate school reunion either. I suppose growing up in a military family and moving every couple of years affected my thinking to moving on to new friends and experiences.

Cheers!

 

[disneysteve]

We do not and I really kind of wish we did.


Growing up, much of my extended family lived nearby and I saw them regularly. My father's sister and brother-in-law and their 2 kids lived a block away. My mom's one sister and brother-in-law and their 3 kids lived 2 blocks away. Another sister and her family lived 3 blocks away. Several other family members lived within 20 minutes of us. We saw them all frequently. We traveled with them. We spent holidays with them. We were all quite close. Especially with the ones who lived in walking distance, we were constantly back and forth between each others houses.



Fast forward and as my generation grew up and had children, the family grew in number and started spreading out geographically and that close connection died out. Where almost everyone had been in Philadelphia or south Jersey, now I had family in NY, CT, MD, CA, FL, and other places.


My daughter didn't have any concept of extended family the way my wife and I did growing up and I'm sorry she missed out on that. She barely knows most of her cousins. In fact, there a quite a few she has never even met. Heck, there's a few at this point that I've never met.


A family reunion that didn't involve a wedding, bar mitzvah, or funeral, would be really nice especially if it was an annual event so that we could build relationships, not just have it be a one-off occurrence.

 

[VanWinkle]

In San Antonio having a family reunion now!! Every two years in a different location in the country voted in by all of those attending.

 

[F.I.R.E User]

Yes but most live close by anyway.

 

[Caskem]

Never. Couldn’t care less about most relatives. I see the ones I care about when I wish. If I don’t see them, that’s fine too.

 

[Koolau]

When I was a kid, my grand parents hosted a family reunion. When they died, the reunion died.

Later on, my DW's uncle hosted a reunion every year while his mom (DW's grandmother) was alive. It was held in our town because Grandma lived close. We still have these huge photos of everyone that attended, huddled around grandma. Nice times, indeed. After she passed, the reunion was usually held every other year.

The uncle lived in Seattle but hosted the reunion within an "affected" area of the midwest that encompassed about 90% of the uncles/aunts/cousins/in laws/out laws. So, I think the farthest we ever had to travel was 60 miles or so. In any case, the uncle paid for everything. He paid for the hall and the food. All we had to do was show up. The last one he hosted, he mentioned it would likely be the last as he was 93 and had 3 types of cancer.

Since then, DW and her brother with a few of their cousins try to get together every year. Last time, I think we had 9 people. I call it an "intimate" reunion rather than a family reunion.

By the way, 3 days before the uncle passed, he called us and made certain he had our correct address. Just days after we received news of his passing, we received a check from him for $10K. It's the only inheritance that either DW or I ever received. I understand that the uncle sent $10K to every cousin. A very nice gesture on his part, but I really miss his reunions. He was quite a guy with lots of WWII stories to tell. He flew 35 missions with the 8th AAF. He had one or two extra kids floating around someplace that he cared for financially. He organized reunions for his AAF unit. He build a house for his mother in her later years. In short, he was an amazing and generous rich man. I'd like to emulate him in many ways (not the spare kids part.)

Reunions can be great. This TG, we are invited to a local luau that is, essentially, a family reunion. We don't know everyone, but our oldest local friends on the Island invited us. There will be incredible amounts and varieties of local and traditional foods - not to mention pies of every description. Heh, heh, we're taking a green salad. Their house looks out over the Pacific which is just across the coast road from their house. The setting is stunningly beautiful.

 

[Rianne]

Yes, family reunions every year and we get together for holidays, football games, graduations, etc. It involves lots of drinking and eating, although I don't drink alcohol so I get to see everyone sloshed. It's interesting, I'm most shy around my family and outgoing around strangers and friends. My family carries a lot of baggage. It seems we're trying to make up for lost time.