Family Reunions

Throughout my life, I have been to many family reunions. Just a little bit of what I remember...

Durden family reunion: We are related to the Durdens through my Grandma Phenix. The reunions took place at this little church in Georgia with a cemetery attached. Dad has a lot of gravestone rubbings/pictures from that cemetery, because several of our ancestors are buried there. There were always a lot of old people at the reunion, 3rd and 4th cousins who knows how many times removed. Old people bring weird food too. Haha. My siblings and I had fun playing around in the cemetery. We went to a couple of those reunions, but I guess the person in charge died.

Phenix family reunion: We've had one of these with my dad's dad's family a couple years ago. It took place in Connecticut near Hartford. All I remember is that it was a hot, sweltering day with no AC in the church where we met. My dad's aunts and uncles have mostly passed on, but those who are still alive were there, as well as some cousins. We don't know them too well. They made us a cake that said, "Y'all come now." I guess they think that Southern influence has taken over the Phenix family. :) I'm not sure when the next one will be. My dad put it together, though. It's too bad we never really had one when his parents were still alive (not formally or that I remember).

Schillemat family reunion: This is more informal,  but my mom is the only one of her siblings that doesn't live in New Hampshire. When we go to visit, the family generally all gets together. That's not happening quite as much, because there are 5-6 kids in college and several married (like me!) who can't always be there. I have fond memories of July 4th's spent together and Christmas Eves eating "grinders". Yum. We still visit every year, but it seems like everyone is growing up and moving away!

Head family reunion: Wow. I have never seen so big a family as the Head family. James's dad's parents have 7 children, 42 grandchildren, and 17? (or maybe more by now) great grandchildren. Basically, that's 90 descendants. I hope that my posterity is that extensive one day. The Head reunion takes place every summer, and I went to my first one last summer. Loved it. I hope we're always close by enough to go.

After writing this, I realized that I have been to a lot of family reunions. The family I don't see is because we don't have reunions with them, which is really too bad. When James and I are old, we will definitely have reunions for all of our kids. :)