What you find in your gene pool!

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family reunionFamily reunions are a hoot. There is all the hype and anticipation and ours doesn’t disappoint. I pulled the short straw this year so it’s at my house today. I dodged the bullet the last couple of years but I ran out of relatives.

I enjoy seeing the family. We don’t get together often enough. Every time you see the kids, they are a foot taller and look a decade older. How do they do that? It doesn’t happen to me. I haven’t grown in years. I don’t think I look older either. It must be something that just happens to kids.

Then there is the food. I come from a family of great cooks. My brother makes my Mom’s potato salad recipe. I am not convinced he does it exactly like Mom did so there always is that discussion. She made it warm with a hot bacon dressing. He makes his salad with bacon but it’s cold. I’m not complaining — it’s very tasty.

The strudel-making detail as been handed down to my grandniece Jenn. We make it with hand-stretched dough. It’s not hard to do, just tedious. There will be cabbage and potato strudel and pulled pork barbecue, chicken and all sorts of salads and cakes for dessert.

I don’t worry about games anymore. Let the younger people do that. I wonder if beer pong or jello shots will show up. There will be a bean bag tournament for sure and sometimes Dominoes.

For several years, we had a karaoke. When people get that microphone in their hands crazy things happen. I’m as bad as the rest of them — crooning at the top of my lungs to just about any song or even no song. We haven’t done it in a while — you know neighbors, police, jail and all that.

Then there was the year that we had a line dance instructor. It was confirmed that the beloved husband has two left feet, maybe three. When we did the electric slide, he was always facing the wrong way. Always! My niece Anita is the only one who will do the slide with him.

Once in a while bad news comes too. Like the year we found out about a relative’s new cancer diagnosis. I tried to plan it when “bad new” is out-of-town.

Here is the athletic part of the family!

Here is the athletic part of the family!

The most interesting part is looking around at all the different variations from the same gene pool. There are different occupations, different interests, different skills and different physical traits. It’s just amazing. Almost as amazing as the food.

Now you gotta watch this video! If you don’t wiggle your ass in your chair, you need to see a doctor! Come on friend! Shake that booty!

 

48 thoughts on “What you find in your gene pool!”

  1. I am confident it was a lot of work to host such a big event, but I love hearing how much you all invest in making these once-a-year gatherings fun as well as meaningful! Line dancing and karaoke! I think we need to step up our family reunions–they don’t come close to this much fun! You set a high bar. 🙂 I’m glad it was a success. But how could it not be?

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  3. I’m grinning. As long as there are no police reports, ambulance rides or fireman, you’re good. The tell of the tape is if you get help cleaning up. And yes, I felt the urge to channel K C and the Sunshine Band…shake, shake, shake. Shake your. ..
    Be well. You done good.
    Dan

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  4. Well Kate, this sounds like you had a pretty good weekend. I enjoy are family reunions too, although I do know some folks who don’t look forward to theirs. I think how sad that must be for them, and think how glad I am that ours are not that way. :O)

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    • It was fun. Our family reunions are free of people stress. We like each other so it’s always interesting. The other key part is that it’s not an overly large group. We usually are around 25.

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  6. Hope you had a great reunion, Kate. I come from very small family on both sides of my family and we’ve never had a reunion. Lots of talk on my dad’s side but it’s never happened. I’m sure there will be some new stories to tell. 🙂

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  9. Sounds like loads of fun!

    We don’t actually do reunions…I guess because there are built-in reunions at weddings and we’ve been having a lot of those. Or it could be because my mother is gone and the women usually run these things.

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  13. How fun! I can’t believe you found the time to write a quick post before the throngs arrive. I’d be stressed out and probably having an argument with my husband about the correct amount of time to allow for something (I’m always overly-optimistic and he’s more practical).

    Have a great reunion and gather a lot of good blog material!

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  14. First off, you’ve made me extremely hungry especially for potato salad, and strudel made me think of Lucy when she said…is your poodle off its noodle? Hey, I know…weird but consider the source.

    It all sounds wonderful and your house is so lovely, I’m sure everyone is pleased you and your strumming husband are hosting.

    Enjoy…nice you have family 🙂

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  16. How fun!!
    Hubbs and I used to host Christmas and summer parties but we stopped about 8 years ago — I don’t miss the work, but I do miss the gatherings. They kind of fell apart since.

    We were never coordinated enough to do any dancing but I would have loved it if we did 😀

    Have a great day and CHEERS to you for being brave enough to host it !! MJ

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    • For the first few years I hosted them all. I had moved out of state and missed everyone. I also did a lot of the cooking. When I moved back we started rotating among some willing relatives and everyone brings something so it’s much easier. Back in the day there were a lot of young (under 21) people so I always tried to have activities. The karaoke was a hoot. Turns out the kids were too shy to use it and the adults hogged it until dark when the kids finally tried it. Then no one wanted to go home! The size of the group varies (spouses, kids, friends, etc.) but it’s rarely over 25. When I was a kid both my parents came from large families. My uncle’s reunion routinely had 60+ people. He had a farm so it wasn’t too bad but still a lot of work.

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  18. Stay cool! (And that is both from a temperature perspective and a mind set!) The food sounds yummy and I know what a wonderful hostess and host you two are! Looking forward to your next blog to hear how it all went.

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