I'm so excited to have another guest poster on while I am out of town. Everyone please welcome my good friend(and the person watching my house for 10 days) Shayla from All 'Bout Cute. Make sure you stop by her page and see what she has going on as well :O)
When Mel asked me to do a guest post, I was soooo excited! But then, the anxiety started. What do I write about???? She wasn't much help, telling to write on whatever subject I wanted to. Hmmm... Seriously, I have a page of scribbles and ideas and they all led no-where.
Then last weekend, I went to Lake Texoma for a family reunion. It was our 35 annual reunion, and 82 people were there! I'm super lucky to have such a huge family. While most of the year, we chit chat on facebook, it's amazing to be able to see most of them if only for just a weekend. Like I said, we're a huge family. Not everyone could make it; it often varies year to year as to who shows up, who has to work, ect. We have a facebook group with only 43 members in it, but then again, I heard someone tell someone else that "there ought to be a facebook group for all of us to get this information in during the year"... So, I guess the "President" of the family isn't very open about who gets into the group... I don't really blame him.
My grandfather is one of 13 children. That's the "S" side. The other side that attends is "P". With a family of 13, I'm not sure where everyone fits in, and I'm not sure when S and P were brought together in marriage. Grandpa said that in the first few years, the "reunion" was more of a "get-together" of only the S family. Someone passed away, and everything changed. The S family invited the P, and the numbers grew, and so did the quality of the reunion. It went from drinking a lot and not much else, to getting to know your family members. With this huge family, I don't have time to figure out who belongs to who, or even what generation each family member is in. I have a Great Aunt the same age my father, and a first cousin the same age as my son. But I kind of like knowing that somehow, I'm related to that person, but I have no clue how I'm related. Marriage? His cousin's aunt is my grandfather's niece? The possibilities are endless.
There are a few families in the family that I steer away from in our annual meeting. The family that drinks the whole time, cusses every other word, or gets too passionate about everything they talk about. We have them, as I'm sure every family has them. Last year, an actual fight broke out at the auction. I'm glad I wasn't around, and my father gets too upset when he talks about it, so I don't even ask. Apparently it was bad enough that the guilty fight starters didn't show up this year; dignity issues, needing to save face, whatever. I think it's childish.
We have an auction to help pay for the stuff we need to purchase or just regular funds needed on a year to year basis. We all make something or just bring something we never use, and sell it. The money goes to camp sites, dinner, repairs, storage for our stuff, ect. We eat dinner at a local cafe that sells all you can eat catfish. We swim all the time. And my favorite thing started this year! Picture exchange! Everyone went through pictures, found duplicates or scanned them and make copies, and brought them to the lake for us to all go through. My great cousin found one of my grandmother and her family, told me to keep it. I love it. I love finding old photos of my grandmother. That's another story, I could go on and on about my wonderful grandparents!
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| Family at dinner. This whole room was us! |
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| My Grandparents, Father, and Uncles. 1978 |
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| Some of my favorite kiddos in the family! (besides mine) |
I also meet people every year that I haven't met before. A couple from California flew in this year. I met my favorite cousin's nephew for the first time after hearing so much about him every time I see his aunt. He's as crazy and fun as they say. We had a blast getting to know each other! My brother would love him to pieces, in the manly "he's cool" type of way. Last year, I met Grandpa's brother. For the first time. Yes. I know. It's like that, though, when you just don't know who is who. I'm sure I had met Eugene before last year. But I never knew who he was.
We all meet at Lake Texoma, but we're spread out all over the country the rest of the year. There are some, like myself, who have to travel hours. But there are some who travel much longer distances. The scenery there is much different than the dry, dirty farmlands I see when I look out my bedroom windows. It's hilly, with trees. And there's water. So much water. I know there's more elsewhere, but when you're in the middle of a drought, a lake seems like the most water you've ever seen.
Do you get together with your family?
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