Me, looking very pregnant, chatting with Uncle Dick at the family reunion.

My husband, in the yellow shirt, participating in the balloon toss at his family reunion.

I don’t know when or where the idea of a family reunion was conceived, but I have come to recognize the value of being with family, sharing history and having fun. My family has not had a reunion in many years and in fact, I can’t even remember the last one. My husband’s family, on the other hand, has one every year (which they realized might be better every other year so it doesn’t get taken for granted and more people show up each year).

His family reunion, on his dad’s side of the family, is the most organized that I have ever seen. His grandmother had 9 brothers and sisters and there are representatives from each family there. There is a committee that organizes the invite letters, books the location, arranges games for children and adults, finds auction items, you name it! Every time my husband attends he meets new relatives and tries to figure out how he is related to them.

With one grandmother in the hospital, an aging grandfather and another aging grandmother (all in their eighties), I am realizing how much I would love to have my family do the same thing. At a recent baby shower for me and my sister, we had a cousin visiting that I hadn’t seen in almost 10 years. How can we loose track so easily?