What do you do at your family reunion?

[mypunkinpie]

WTH is with these weekend/week-long family reunions? With themed days??

We just had our family reunion. People traveled to NY from all kinds of different states for it. I drove 9 hrs. The whole thing consisted of a picnic lunch and sitting around talking. Some of the kids went off and played ball. That's it. The whole thing was over in 3 hours.

What are your family reunions like?

[lazyphoque]

My family does not typically reunion. Someone planned one once and we all huddled under a park pavillion getting drunk while a crazy thunderstorm blew through. Then my dad roped all my cousins into shooting craps and fleeced them.

ETA - We see everyone at thanksgiving and christmas, kids' birthdays, graduations, weddings and funerals. We're tight.

[bonquiqui]

I din't have any lol. My great grandmother died a few years ago at 107, and then it was like you described. It was in her town, about 3 hrs long, adults visited, and kids played outside.

[scotty]

A lot of it centers around bonfires, eating, and water activities.

[Deleted]

i'm busy that weekend.

[Deleted]

Countdown to when I can leave.

[verycontrary247]

My maternal grandparents host an annual family reunion. We usually eat, talk and shoot guns. Sometimes the younger cousins will go to the local water park or see a movie while the old people are talking about genealogy or the good old days. It's a 15 hour drive there and another 15 hour drive back.

[eb777888]

Jul 9, 2012 10:25:17 GMT -5 cville said:

i'm busy that weekend.

Yeah, me too.

H's family has them and we'd go if they weren't two days long, outside in the middle of the Texas summer. No thanks.

[Tacocat]

Drinking. H's family reunion's are a lot of fun. We usually find a resort on a lake with cabins and stay a whole week. My grandmother's reunions were like the ones described above and super boring, I haven't been to one of those in years.

[pantsparty]

We just had one, my parents and siblings + spouses in a house with no AC. Ugh.

We did a lot of drinking, hanging out, going to the beach, drinking, playing cards, dinners, drinking.

Extended family reunions have typically been at a state park for a few hours, everyone brings a dish. No effing way I'd drive 9 hours for a family reunion.

I look at weddings as my extended family reunions

[hisno1girl]

We're planning ours now for next June and this is the schedule:

Arrive Wednesday.
Thursday: Visiting w/family & drinking
Friday: Morning Canoe Trip & picnic & drinking, evening: casino and drinking
Saturday: Day long BBQ, games, eating & drinking
Sunday: Family Church day, visiting & drinking
Monday: Sight-seeing, shopping, eating & drinking
Tues: Return home.

We like to eat and drink. A LOT.

[adhdfashion]

Eating and drinking. Swimming, volleyball, bag races, and baseball. With a spattering of other corny camp games for all the kids. You don't have to do anything but sit and talk.

[emsumm]

Ours is at my parent's lake resort, we spent a week there. We drink, cook, eat, swim in the lake and pool, go tubing, water skiing, visit the berry farm next door...
There's a lot to do, and about 50 people attend.

[sewf]

My uncle usually organizes ours each year. We do a friends and family picnic. Mostly it's our immediate family who we see all the time, but great aunts and uncles and second cousins come, too. Also, family friends and people from my aunt's church.

We get a lake shelter house, BBQ, visit, and the kids play at the adjacent playground. H usually complains and we leave within three hours. Perfect timing for me.

[dcannie]

we don't do these.

[eb777888]

Jul 9, 2012 10:30:00 GMT -5 @tambcat said:

Pick up dudes.

H's brother took his then girlfriend to one of his family reunions and she saw her aunt there, lol. It turns out she's a distant cousin by marriage. They ended up getting married.

[newenglandwifey]

We don't do family reunions because everyone lives in New England and we see each other TONS throughout the year!

Our immediate family usually gets together once or twice a month and extended is usually every couple of months.

[broc]

My answer is going to be super wacky. lol.

My great-great grandparents bought a summer home in like, 1900. In the 60s, my family created a non-profit corporation to basically assume ownership of the property. It's open to any family all summer long, and there are established party/gatherings on holidays (memorial day, 4th of july, labor day & columbus day). We have a 'reunion' weekend every year on the last weekend in July in order to have a meeting WRT the LLC... financial statements, minutes, elections of board members, the whole freaking 9 yards.

The Friday before my mom does a 'welcome back' dinner, then the meeting is saturday morning for all adult members, after which there is an official family portrait taken. There's a 'big meal' for saturday mid-afternoon (which usually includes a whole or half roast pig, depending on the size of the gathering), we hire the local church's ladies group to make a dozen pies or so for dinner. Sunday is traditionally a hot dogs & hamburgers BBQ before everyone packs up & leaves.

This summer, we have to measure Joaquin on the door where I, my mom & my grandfather got measured as we grew up, and paint her leaf on the family tree mural. We swim or go tubing in a local river, my dad & I do some landscape painting, and we play tons of board games and card games, but it's mostly eating, drinking and discussion. It's a really unique thing we have going. I'm way closer to my 2nd and 3rd cousins on my mom's side than I am my 1st cousins on my dad's side.

[joenali]

Cribbage tournamnet, horseshoes, potluck, games for kids, raffle, hanging out by the pool, breakfast in the morning, hanging out and drinking by the fire at night. I usually don't go for the whole weekend, just for the day of activities. I like going to just be with my immediate family, I barely know anyone else outside of them.

[Mrs.Beagle]

We've never had one. It's probably for the best.

[nahoku]

We used to do one every year with my mom's side of the family. It was at my great-aunt's house. She had a huge yard and a tennis court and it was mostly just drinking, eating and talking. There hasn't been one in several years, but my mom, her cousin and another great-aunt are planning one for August.

My other great-aunt will host a potluck get together on Friday night and on Saturday afternoon, they rented party buses that will take everyone to favorite family haunts - the church my great-grandparents were married in (it would have been their 100 yr anniversary), the house where my grandma and her siblings grew up, schools, etc. Then we're doing dinner at a favorite bar in NE Mpls - I assume there will also be singing at the piano bar and polkaing to the World's Most Dangerous Polka Band. We're just going to go to dinner though b/c we'll have the kids.

[So_Fetch]

I haven't gone to a reunion in awhile - but the last time I would say the majority of the time was spent drinking and the last hour was spent breaking up fist fights between my cousins (who are brothers).

[AlpineSlide]

One side of my family gathers at a campground/lake. We eat a picnic lunch, sit around and talk, swim in the lake, play in the sand, kids play on the playground, etc. Its just a one day thing, only lasting for the afternoon usually. It might go later occasionally and we have a bonfire, roast marshmallows, etc

The other side meets at a park pavillion and we eat a picnic lunch, sit around and talk, possible hike the trails, play cards, horseshoes, etc.

Very boring.

[jane6672]

Jul 9, 2012 10:51:59 GMT -5 broc said:

My answer is going to be super wacky. lol.

My great-great grandparents bought a summer home in like, 1900. In the 60s, my family created a non-profit corporation to basically assume ownership of the property. It's open to any family all summer long, and there are established party/gatherings on holidays (memorial day, 4th of july, labor day & columbus day). We have a 'reunion' weekend every year on the last weekend in July in order to have a meeting WRT the LLC... financial statements, minutes, elections of board members, the whole freaking 9 yards.

The Friday before my mom does a 'welcome back' dinner, then the meeting is saturday morning for all adult members, after which there is an official family portrait taken. There's a 'big meal' for saturday mid-afternoon (which usually includes a whole or half roast pig, depending on the size of the gathering), we hire the local church's ladies group to make a dozen pies or so for dinner. Sunday is traditionally a hot dogs & hamburgers BBQ before everyone packs up & leaves.

This summer, we have to measure Joaquin on the door where I, my mom & my grandfather got measured as we grew up, and paint her leaf on the family tree mural. We swim or go tubing in a local river, my dad & I do some landscape painting, and we play tons of board games and card games, but it's mostly eating, drinking and discussion. It's a really unique thing we have going. I'm way closer to my 2nd and 3rd cousins on my mom's side than I am my 1st cousins on my dad's side.

Is the house, by chance, in PA?

[broc]

Jul 9, 2012 11:38:24 GMT -5 jane6672 said:

Jul 9, 2012 10:51:59 GMT -5 broc said:

My answer is going to be super wacky. lol.

My great-great grandparents bought a summer home in like, 1900. In the 60s, my family created a non-profit corporation to basically assume ownership of the property. It's open to any family all summer long, and there are established party/gatherings on holidays (memorial day, 4th of july, labor day & columbus day). We have a 'reunion' weekend every year on the last weekend in July in order to have a meeting WRT the LLC... financial statements, minutes, elections of board members, the whole freaking 9 yards.

The Friday before my mom does a 'welcome back' dinner, then the meeting is saturday morning for all adult members, after which there is an official family portrait taken. There's a 'big meal' for saturday mid-afternoon (which usually includes a whole or half roast pig, depending on the size of the gathering), we hire the local church's ladies group to make a dozen pies or so for dinner. Sunday is traditionally a hot dogs & hamburgers BBQ before everyone packs up & leaves.

This summer, we have to measure Joaquin on the door where I, my mom & my grandfather got measured as we grew up, and paint her leaf on the family tree mural. We swim or go tubing in a local river, my dad & I do some landscape painting, and we play tons of board games and card games, but it's mostly eating, drinking and discussion. It's a really unique thing we have going. I'm way closer to my 2nd and 3rd cousins on my mom's side than I am my 1st cousins on my dad's side.

Is the house, by chance, in PA?

uh, maaaaybe. (uh oh?)

[jane6672]

Jul 9, 2012 11:46:18 GMT -5 broc said:

Jul 9, 2012 11:38:24 GMT -5 jane6672 said:

Is the house, by chance, in PA?

uh, maaaaybe. (uh oh?)

lol! ygpm

[broc]

ygpm back

(but no, for the rest of ML, heh).

[lifesapeach]

We make apple butter. It's been a family tradition for over 100 years. It's a huge 2 day process- we make a few hundred jars and everyone takes some home. It sounds odd but it at least gives us something to focus on. And we also drink, a lot. That part has also been a tradition for over 100 years in my family.