Family Reunions

I remember when I was a little girl, we were always traveling to some family reunion or another. Even as I grew older, I still attended family reunions where aunts and uncles and cousins and in-laws and grandchildren and grandparents and great-grandparents and moms and dads and scores and skads (I have no idea what a skad is, but I like the word) gathered to reconnect.

When I first got married, Mike and I attended two family reunions in one year. One for his side of the family and one for mine. It was awkward on both occasions, with people making introductions like, "This is Carol. She's JL's boy, Mike's, wife." Or, "This is Mike. He's married to Annie Dee's baby boy, Gordon's daughter, Carol (I don't actually know how to punctuate that sentence.)

But my generation doesn't have family reunions. I don't think they do anyway. Most of the ones I went to when I was younger involved driving for hours, with a potluck dish in tow, to sit with the people that we drove with because we didn't actually know anyone else there very well. So over time, I think we just decided it didn't make sense to go anymore, and instead we just started mailing out Christmas letters. :) (Those stupid letters had to start for some reason!)

HOWEVER, this past weekend, we celebrated the 75th birthday of my husband's mother, my mother-in-law. We drove for 6 hours, all for the opportunity to say, "Surprise" and wish her well. But it was time well spent. And for a moment, it felt a little like a family reunion. All my husband's family was there totaling 34 people with just his brother and sisters and their kids and grandkids. Over 30 distant relatives were there, some whom I knew and some whom I did not know at all, even though they seemed to know me.

All that to say, I guess there is something good about looking around and knowing that you are somehow connected to all these people who are virtual strangers. It some how makes the world feel a little smaller.