Summer is coming up and if you’re like me that includes family reunions. This summer I am in charge of my husband’s family reunion. So I’ve decided to write a series of blogs on family reunions. These blogs will include organizing a family reunion, tips on having a successful family reunion, fun group games, things to do, and how to finance a family reunion.
Family reunions are important.
It used to be that most families lived within a few miles of each other. Children would grow up and marry someone who lived within the same town. Or parents would give their son part of the family farm, where he would build a house and live. Often grandparents lived with their children or grown-up children with their parents. Today things are very different. Families are often spread out across the country. This makes holding annual family reunions even more important, because without the family reunion to draw members back they might not see each other at all.
It is important for children to understand and appreciate their heritage. I remember going to family reunions and listening to the adults reminisce about old times, especially my grandparents talking about growing up in the time of wagons, lamps, and outhouses (they were both born in 1907). This gave me an appreciation for my heritage and an idea of where I came from. Children today often do not have any connections to the past, and therefore less responsibility for the future.
Family reunions foster relationships.
Growing up many of my cousins lived far away and I only saw them at the annual family reunion. Yet after the initial shyness wore off we were inseparable. The idea that blood is thicker than water proved true. Reunions give a chance for adults and children to reconnect.
Family reunions provide great memories.
I look back with fondness at some of the family reunions I attended as a child. I remember: sleeping in a giant tent with all of my cousins, catching my first fish, eating orange watermelon that my uncle brought from Texas, dressing up and dancing in the living room, having my aunt do my hair, and many more.
As an adult we have an annual family reunion with my parents and siblings. My children love going to the reunion. Tyler still talks about the time we went jet skiing and grandpa rode him over to where the water poured out of the higher dam into the lower dam.