Finished with the family!

Well, finished contacting them about the reunion. In the past two weeks, I called or emailed everyone I could...some answered and some did not. Some were glad to hear from me and some did exactly as requested and called their entire family, then called me back with a count. Bless them all... and bless me, too; I've talked with more relatives than I ever have in a two-week period unless somebody died.

See, that's the thing. I have this idea that we should get together when there isn't a funeral, just to have fun and see if we still like each other. Some of my relatives agree, apparently some do not. That's ok. I'll see them at the next funeral.

(Just re-read that, and it is not fair, there is a third group who have pressing plans and a fourth who have work obligations, and a fifth who have financial considerations. Ok. I'll see them all, well, you know.)

Now comes the fun part - planning the decorations with Juli. Oh yeah, my niece is all grown up, has a job and cannot spend a week with me, goofing off and planning the party part of the reunion, so we have to plan via email. Knew it was coming, but I hate it. Do not think her brother will come without her. That means no more kids spending the week, fishing, bowling, roasting marshmallows, playing horseshoes with Uncle Tim and teasing him about his "herbal iced tea."

Tim says the next generation in his family is just about old enough to start spending time here, so I'm not throwing out the fishing poles, yet. But it was sure nice to have two people who understood me that well around for a week every spring. Sometimes Tim just shook his head at us, but we were just being Kroekers. Like the time we ran out of marshmallows to roast, so we roasted our Peeps. (If you do not know what Peeps are, Google them; I don't have time to explain.) It was kind of like summer camp should have been - fun. We even have silly songs and sayings that make no one else laugh but crack us up mightily.

Next, the Fourth of July in California, then more work on the reunion and finally, the event - at the beach in California for a week and a weekend with my relatives. Cannot wait to see how that turns out.

More reunion thoughts...calling the relatives

If I have to call sixty people in 30 days, how many people do I have to call per day? Two, right? If I call one aunt and she promises to talk to one uncle, does that count as two people? Am I then finished for the day? That sounds good. So, yesterday, Father's Day, I called my dad and one brother - that must count for two (Mom and Dad) plus four (brother, sister-in-law, two nieces). That's six in one day; five in the "yes" column. Yup, yesterday was a good day for counting relatives.

Who shall I call today? Maybe the cousin whose son's wedding was last Saturday. If I count her, her husband, their two sons and two daughters-in-law - hey! that's six more people! At this rate, I could be finished in no time...sufficient unto the day.

Families

I've been planning a family reunion for about a year. I didn't ask for this job. Two of my cousins, who I almost never see anymore, asked me to. ( I think they asked me to, it's all a blur now.) The planning is kind of fun in the beginning; everyone is happy to hear there's going to be a reunion, that it's going to be a long time from now and mostly that they don't have to plan it. Then things get complicated. Where will we have the reunion? What will it cost? Who will pay? Will anyone actually show up?

There are a lot of places on the web to get help with family reunions. Places that sell you web sites, places that sell you software, there's even a site called familyreunion.com that has ideas about everything from food to fund raising. I used all the little helpers I could find...including building a web site. BTW "if you build it they will come" doesn't necessarily apply to family reunion web pages.

It's now 35 days to the reunion. The place is reserved - a pavilion at a park near the beach. The food is set - a pot luck barbeque. We even have a block of rooms ready to be reserved. Letters have been mailed or hand delivered or handed out with a request to "give this to your brother/sister/daughter/son." Now I just have to find out how many of my relatives are going to show up!

Cannot put it off any longer, it's time to call and beg. I mean ask, how many people to expect. If everyone shows up, there will be about sixty of us. So far, I think we can count on almost forty (!) we'll see...