Does anyone else have a family reunion? How about every year? Does your mom lay the guilt trips down to try to get you to go?
I'm torn a bit on the subject. I
hated them growing up. I am the youngest of 8 and my dad was the youngest of 7. As a result, I was always the youngest and was bored out of my mind when we were forced to go to them. It was endless hours of "I remember you when you were this tall" and "Do you remember me", with no other kids to play with.
With recent family reunions, it's hard to want to commit one of my rare "free" weekends to go to something that's far down on my "places I'd like to go" list. I like to be able to relax, spend time with my own family and friends, etc.
However, I'm also in a period where most of my aunts and uncles are in their 80's and 90's and passing away every few years. I know I have a limited time to hear about some of their stories, things they had to deal with on a daily basis, how different events affected their lives. Having a group of them together enables an open discussion and will often jog peoples' memories enough to recollect something they might otherwise forget.
I'm also a little concerned that people are growing farther and farther apart from their extended families. It's mostly due to children not staying close to home like they used to, of course. But I think some of it has to be attributed to the ease of keeping in contact via Facebook, so the face to face contact isn't as necessary.
I think you'll see family reunions slowly become things of the past. People can pick and choose which parts of their families they pay attention to, which can be good and bad.