Family Reunions - How often do you have yours?

[Kirby]

We had our first family reunion on my husband's side of the family last weekend. It was a short one, just a picnic on Sunday. We'd like to have more.

I've been to two reunions on my side of the family and they were more of a destination where you stay a couple of days. So, I thought I would come and ask my DIS friends about theirs.

How often does your family have reunions?

Where do you go for yours?

How long do you stay?

Any information would be great!

 

[dzorn]

My DH has one yearly on each side of his family on the same weekend. His Grandpa's on Sunday his Grandma on Saturday.

They are about and hour from our house. One and hour north one an hour south. So we return home same day.

Denise in MI

 

[minkydog]

We had our first family reunion on my husband's side of the family last weekend. It was a short one, just a picnic on Sunday. We'd like to have more.

I've been to two reunions on my side of the family and they were more of a destination where you stay a couple of days. So, I thought I would come and ask my DIS friends about theirs.

How often does your family have reunions?

Where do you go for yours?

How long do you stay?

Any information would be great!

We get together with my mother's extended family every 3-4 years. We mostly live in different states, but we have reunited at resorts, hotels, and even church resorts. Usually we have a "trail in" meal on Thursday night, when everyone comes in dribs and drabs. Then we meet after dinner for talking, singing, story telling, and just general hanging out. On Friday and Saturday we get together for Breakfast and Supper. Usually there are no activities planned during the day, so some of us do things together and others go off on their own or with another family. After supper we reconvene. We have marched in Fourth of July parades together, watched fireworks, sang the National Anthem at a circus, played Guitar Hero, done paintball, gone antiquing, and visited Montecello and the Mariners Museum. On Sunday morning we meet one last time for breakfast together. At that time we pass the baton to the person who plans the next reunion.

Now my birth family does it different. Lots of us camp, so we get together every couple years for a big family campout. We've also stayed in a beach house on the Outer Banks, been to Yellowstone, stayed in the French Quarter, and visited the Pacific Northwest. We can find any reason to get together. Unfortunately, we very rarely can all be together

 

[Kirby]

Thank you both for your replies!

minkydog, could you tell me which resorts you've been to? Most of the family lives in Texas but we're all willing to head out of state.

If anyone has been to a place here in Texas that you would recommend, I'd surely appreciate the info.

 

[FireDancer]

Are you Italian? We seem to be the only people that have these things. My Italian side of the family has one about every 5 years. We just had one last October.

We just rent out a pavilion in one of the local parks. They lasted longer when we were kids but the last one was about 4 hours. Everyone brought their own main meal along with something to share. Just about all of my family is local, at least my close family, so there was never any question about doing it locally vs. out of town.

 

[minkydog]

Mostly we've been to places in Virginia and North Carolina--Williamsburg, Grave's Mountain, Lake Junaluska, St. Simon's Island(oops, thats in GA), so I don't think you'd want to go that far.

But I'm sure you can find something to fit the bill there in Texas. the first thing you have to do is figure out how far people are willing to travel and how much they're willing to spend. We always stay somewhere where we can have meals served, so it can easily cost $600+ per family, maybe more, which is why we only do a reunion every 3-4 years. The thing is, there is no "home place" for my family. We all live in different states so it's not like we can just pop over for 4 hours with a pound cake and some fried chicken. Some of us have traveld as far as 2000 miles to be there.

You can always have a small family reunion at a state park or in a hotel. Two of our best reunions were with my sibs, their families and my mom. We met in a city that was about equi-distant from most of us and stayed at a hotel that had free breakfast and a good pool. We enjoyed each other for about 2 days and then we all went on our ways. It was great and those two were actually not too expensive.

 

[tvguy]

About every 5 years. But as the "parents" generation has aged or passed away, the attendance drops a lot. On my side that generation is all age 85 to 90. My cousins, age 50 to 65 are literally so scatter around the world, that generatio doesn't take part in mass.
On my wife's side, ironically, where everyone was 10 years younger, reunions are over because the oldest generation have all passed away.

 

[m&m's mom]

My side of the family has a reunion every summer.
We take turns with one of my moms siblings family. Two of the family live in TX and 2 in Iowa. We alternate going to Iowa, staying here in Texas and picking a neutral place. In a few days 30 are all going on a Disney cruise together for 5 days. We have all stayed at a resort in Branson and taken a cruise together to Alaska. Even though we are spread out- we are close and love spending time together.
When we stay local (Dallas area) we have rented boats and planned shopping trips etc for the girls while the guys hit Cabela's.
Honestly the reunions in Iowa are more fun since they are on cool farms with a lake very closer by. Beats shopping in Texas.

 

[chager]

Can't remember last one we were invited to....used to have them yearly on mom's side before most of my grandparents generation passed away. They were always at a park. On dad's side they were not as frequents. Sometimes at someone's house, or a park. The one a really remember was The Bavarian Inn Lodge of Frankenmuth. It was about 20 years ago though! I remember enjoying it, but my parents said it was terrible. The hubby and I were newly married though so maybe that is the difference!

 

[muffyn]

We had our first family reunion on my husband's side of the family last weekend. It was a short one, just a picnic on Sunday. We'd like to have more.

I've been to two reunions on my side of the family and they were more of a destination where you stay a couple of days. So, I thought I would come and ask my DIS friends about theirs.

How often does your family have reunions?

Where do you go for yours?

How long do you stay?

Any information would be great!

my hubbys family has one each year. & we have it at our home, since we have the room for the 65+ that the possible could attend.
we also have 16 acres for the kids to run, play paint ball, corn hole etc.

its a lot of work . cleaning, preparing the event, but at least I don't have to travel.
we do the usual games, contests, & a horse racing ( with stick horses & grid squares with dice roll to advance)

although, when my FIL passes away ( I hope not soon as he is a very active 86 yr old) I think the family will slide apart.


now my side never see's anyone, unless its a funeral.
i saw my brother & sister a year ago ( only immediate family I have left).
I have always been sad that my family grew apart, we always had christmas eve parties, which ended when I was 15, barely saw my cousins after that, most I have not seen in over 35 yrs.

 

[charming23]

We do them every other year with my dad's side. One "family" gets elected to provide the main part of the meal, usually hamburgers and hot dogs, while the rest of the families help supply the rest of the meal. We also all pitch in for any facility fees for the places we go to.

 

[aprilgail2]

We go to the Poconos- my moms side and my dads side all get together from Friday-Sunday every year. We have a blast! My cousins come from as far as Texas and Colorado for the weekend!!

 

[golfgal]

Whenever someone gets the energy to plan one . We have had a couple on Dh's side over the past 20+ years and only one on my side.

 

[luvsJack]

Every year. Its just a big picnic for the day.

Annual family reunions are pretty common around here. Some families have them every year on a certain day--my sister's in-laws have theirs every year on Easter and include a HUGE Easter egg hunt, some have them at the lake for July 4th, Mom's family used to have their's on Thanksgiving every year.

We were just talking about this at work the other day. One of our co-workers is from Boston and she said that they never had family reunions and that she had never heard of one until she moved here. Anyone here from Boston?

 

[21hearts]

We've never just had a family reunion but we have had large family gatherings for events. My sister just graduated from college so our grandma, 2 aunts, 2 uncles and 5 cousins came down for the day. Our family is all spread out and there have been several attempts to do one but they just never worked out.

 

[Kirby]

Thanks for your replies! Sounds like a lot of people do a one day reunion. I've been on three and two of them (my side of the family) were more of a destination where you stay a couple of days. The last one (my DH's side) was a trial run and lasted one afternoon.

To answer a PP, my side is Irish, English, Dutch descent and my DH's is Irish/French. No Italian at the moment.

My DH's side wants to start having reunions every couple of years and guess who gets to plan the next one? Me! We've stopped getting together at Christmas because the extended family is getting very large with lots of little ones, they want to start their own Christmas traditions. So they have opted for a reunion every couple of years instead.

Since it's my turn to plan next, we will definately head somewhere cooler in the summer.