Saturday, July 5, 2008

Family Reunions!??

I would like to start out by saying that I love my family!! All of them!! 2nd, 3rd, 4th cousins, aunts, uncles, some of them I don't even know their name...but I would like to...most of them I would love to get to know a little better. I don't know what it's like at other people's family reunions, I don't even know if other people have them.....but we went to the Keen Family Reunion today!!! That is my grandmother's family, and it gets worse every year. My grandmother was unable to attend this year, so maybe that makes my attitude a little worse. Ok for starters, the reunion is held at a church in the middle of nowhere (now I know that me or my children should not have to be entertained, that's not the complaint) however we are in this room with all of the people who are "family," most of which I do not know there name nor do they know mine, we eat lunch which is very good, and then "THE PROGRAM" (I'll get back to that in a minute), and then we leave. I'm not sure how we are supposed to get to know this family. Today there were around 90 people there; 2 of the oringinal 13 Keen children, maybe 20 of the 2nd generation, the rest were 3rd generation and beyond. I think there were at least 20 children under the age of 15, all of which were totally miserable. In Avery's words "I'm not going back there again!" Ok so I know it sound like I'm rambling about nothing, and maybe I am...So "the program"...the meeting was called to order by the president, why do we need a president? why do we need a program? We said the pledge of alligence, 2 girls sang, we recognized the families of the orginal 13 Keen's--all of which was ok---then for about 20 minutes we went back and forth about should we give money from the "treasury" to families of cousins that have passed away, "do I have a motion?" "do I have a second?" Then we tried to "elect" a president? All of this went on for about 30-45 minutes...still no time to visit or get to know people, no time for our kids to interact, and when the program was over every one packed up there stuff and left. I'm not sure why anyone really wants to come??? I'm not sure why I felt the need to vent about this. But it seems like a lot of things are like this, we get so caught up in the "program" that we lose sight of whats really important-PEOPLE. Churches, school, family reunions. Anyway, thanks for letting me vent!