Family Reunion
Tuesday, August 14th, 2007
First, I want to say thanks to Carly for switching days with me. Mondays were becoming really difficult…now that I’m in my own house again and am doing different things on weekends, I was finding myself scrambling on Sunday nights to come up with something for the next day.
Yesterday would have been especially difficult because we had our first official party at my new house on Sunday! I had such a ball welcoming my two “local” sisters & their families here and repaying some of the marvelous hospitality they’ve shown us for such a long time. Plus, my father & stepmother were in town, as were my sister from Florida, her hubby & their two kids. My brother & his wife and my nephew came over from D.C. So yes, we had a houseful. Add some friends to the mix and we were a group of well over twenty.
Bruce did most of the hard work by cooking a fabulous pulled pork & ribs dinner in the smoker in the backyard. We had a ton of food and lots of beer and wine and just loads of fun. And we spent part of the day doing something you probably wouldn’t expect at a backyard bbq…we watched home movies.
You see, for several years, we’ve been having family reunions, but they’ve been kind of sporadic. There haven’t been too many when we’ve all been together. (In case you haven’t realized it, I have a very big family. Four older sisters & a younger brother. There are, of course, in-laws, plus 13 grandkids and 1 great-grandkid. And I’m not even going to talk about the aunts uncles & cousins…these reunions are just for the immediate “Smith” family.)
Anyway, at these reunions, the grandchildren have gotten into the habit of doing talent shows. Usually Broadway-based talent shows (since I used to be the director and now my girls have taken over the job.) But since they’re all older now, and didn’t have time to put something together this year, we made do watching the videos of previous ones.
They were just wonderful…but wow. Talk about getting smacked in the head with the passage of time. As we watched these movies, some with my youngest toddling around at age 1, and my other two daughters just beautiful little girls, I couldn’t help looking around the room at the faces, realizing just how much they’ve changed. My girls are all teens now, one really an adult. My nephew, the cute, funny little boy on the video was sitting next to me, 6’2, muscular, handsome…and asking his Mom if he had ADHD when he was little and she just never told him.
The adults had all changed, too…weight lost (or gained). Hair lost (not gained.) More wrinkles, more of us. And a few less of us…which made for a few poignant moments.
One thing was the same: the smiles. And the laughter of those of us watching the videos sounded just like the laughter on them.
Believe it or not, we get to do this all over again in a week’s time. You see, the sister from Florida is leaving on Saturday…and my eldest sister & her sons are coming to visit from Africa next Sunday! Talk about your lousy timing for those two sisters, but I, for one, am very excited. I think this one is going to rank as the longest-running family reunion we’ve ever had.
They’re loud and expensive and crowded and insane…but I wouldn’t trade these get-togethers for the world. Honestly, my family is utterly amazing and just so much darn fun. We all actually like being together.
As I was forcibly reminded by the home movies, we’re all getting older. We already know firsthand about loss because of the death of my Mom so many years ago…and that loss has left us all with a genuine appreciation of every wonderful moment we have with the people we love. Because there might not be a next one. Which makes these group moments…and those lovely home videos…even more wonderful.
Anybody else here do the family reunion thing? Are they wonderful for you…or stressful? Any traditions that have continued from year to year?
