Family Get-Togethers - A Holiday-ish MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Local Best Friend’s family was in town over the weekend and we spent Saturday evening together. Upon reflection, it occurred to me that their family get-togethers are quite different from many I’ve been to. For one thing, they’re quite a bit chattier than any of the families I grew up with. There were 17 of us, including the baby who was the reason for the reunion (she was baptized this weekend).

Here’s what the evening looked like:

Once dinner was in the oven, several of us sat in the living room and alternately chatted and watched TV (with subtitles as there was music playing). We had anywhere between 1 and 3 conversations going at any time.

There was another group in the dining area (the kitchen, dining area and living room are set up in an open layout). Part of that group sat around the table chatting, the other hung around the music and periodically broke into song and, at one point, dance.

People moved around periodically so that everyone talked to everyone at some point.

The two- and four-year olds mostly played in the kids’ room, but came out and joined us when dinner was ready.

Baby was handed around for a while early on, but she spent most of the evening in her crib, fast asleep.

At a couple of points, a few people went back to the office to be entertained by You Tube (part of the conversation involved some videos that someone had seen). This resulted in an additional sing-along.

Somewhere in the middle, dinner was ready and we served ourselves and continued chatting.

I grew up around families where family gatherings mostly went like this: the adults engaged in polite conversation in the formal living room while the kids were off somewhere playing or watching TV. Pretty boring by comparison. The Mexican side of my family is livelier - usually there’s someone who starts playing the piano or guitar, and there are generally multiple conversations going on. Gatherings at Far-Away Best Friend’s always involve music as well.

So, what are gatherings like in your family? Do you do anything different (or additional) when you’re celebrating major holidays?

GT

2

Me first!!!???

ETA: Gatherings in our family (when we are all in the same country) are a big affair. More later - work intervenes …

3

Depends on the side of the family. On my Mum’s side it tended towards formal conversation with the kids elsewhere. Mostly what we did with Dad’s extended family was New Year’s, which was always chaos with up to fifty people, and kids running around underfoot. Multiple rooms, multiple conversations- although, because they were Japanese gatherings, there were always at least two or three tvs on.

And platters full of shrimp, with the heads still on, glaring beadily.
Morning. I’m up early because of Braxton-Hicks contractions, but I think I’ll go back to bed in a few minutes. The baby shower was extremely female, and tinyninjachef has roughly enough clothes to last him for his whole life, if he never gets very big. I think a lot of the women kind of went nuts in baby clothes stores.

QD made him an absolutely gorgeous quilt, in deep colours. I’ll take pics of it whenever I retrieve the gifts from Mum’s car. He also got several hand-knit sweaters and a homemade stuffed cat. There’s something like two garbage bags full of stuff, and not a single toy sterilizer. Thank goodness.
Yawn. Back to bed.

4

Well, we’ve definitely got different family for different occasions. My mom’s side is Jewish and my dad’s side is Baptist. Totally different crowds, really. Gatherings on my mom’s side are usually at my Aunt’s house. While gatherings on the other side are too large to be at an one person’s house so they are usually at a church or park. This year, for instance, we’ll be having the family Christmas party at somebody’s church hall and there will be around 65 people in attendance.

I’m feeling yucky today. Kind of nauseated, but I imagine it’s just nerves. My dad read my email last night and said that he loves me and would respond in person to what I had to say. Not really looking forward to more crying. My eyes are already swollen. Soon I won’t be able to see at all.

I need to get motivated to leave TVMan’s house and head toward work.

5

This was a baptism, right? 'Cos otherwise I would have sworn that family must be Jewish… :slight_smile:

Sounds like it was fun! (maybe because it sounds like what a get-together here is usually like!)

{{{CuteyPie}}} This is no way to start a new week :frowning:

6

work is interferring with my life as well, so if I have access at work today (sometimes I do but it’s sporadic at best) I’ll read and post then

oh - it rained last night so SnowBunny is forgiven.

7

Mornin’, y’all. Brekkie et, and caffeine being consumed.

I have 11 5 gallon buckets of peecans collected, with about half a bucket to go before the wind started last night. That’s a drum of nuts so far, Mumpers, and still some up in the tree. I’m planning on having those already gathered cracked tomorrow night, so we can start sorting. Thirty five gallons last year took us 2 weeks to go through; we’re hiring Lauren the neighbor girl to help us out.

I drove the rental car to work today. I tells ya that I can get mighty spoiled by a car that has working heat… :eek: :frowning: Too bad I didn’t total the NerdMobile[sup]tm[/sup].

8

Hubby’s family manages a get together about once a year. That is, except for the brother married to a Muslim doesn’t come when the brother married to the Jewish woman is there, even though she no longer considers herself Jewish since they were born again. (There aren’t enough roll eyes in the world)

They don’t approve of me either, since I’m “too old” but they do talk to me now, after 7 years of marriage.

The parents have both had slight strokes in the last couple years, so they have memory problems. The conversations have become very circular.

Now that the folks have moved into a retirement village, it’s harder to get everyone into the same room. When we all visit, they insist we all eat at the in-house “restaurant” which is about equal to bad hospital food.
We’ve tried to take them out to dinner, but they insist, since it’s free. :rolleyes:

Hubby has Christmas day off but works Christmas eve, so we might miss Christmas dinner. I hope we can go over the week before. Too bad.

9

Considering that major holidays and funerals are the only time my family gets together anymore, we adults spend most of the time yakking while the four kids run around. I usually end up running around with the kids because a) I’m the youngest adult and b) since I’m the only person in my age group, I got sick of hanging out with the adults a long time ago.

I’m all green tea’d up and ready for another day. Let’s see if my Super Repulsion Ray works today when I’m on the reference desk for five hours. Did I mention Wednesday is the last day of classes? I’m anticipating a slamming that the WCW would be proud of.

10

Howdy Y’all! I’m up and caffienatin’. It’s 5:45 A.M. here. I think my body has decided to adjust to Californy time cause it’s not yellin’ at me for bein’ up.

Family gatherings of the swampclan tend to be loud. At mom 's we’re scattered from the den, to the living room, to the dining room. Like gt described, we tend to move around a lot to talk to everybody. Great OP BTW.

AAARGH!!! Need more caffiene!

Later Y’all!

11

Ooh, I plum fergot. A small gathering of the VunderClan is in the making. I bought tickets for the VunderKind to come visit the Lair.

In general, all family gatherings I’ve been to have been benevelent chaos, regardless of respective sides. I wouldn’t know how to handle anything else…

12

I’ve pretty much written off my mom’s side of the family. My cousins and I on my father’s side get together a couple times a year, usually because someone just decided to throw a party for the hell of it.

They sound a lot like the one** GT** was at when they happen. We’re a pretty happy bunch of Mexicans. :stuck_out_tongue:

13

I hate get-togethers with my dad’s side of the family. The men sit in the living room, watching TV, while the women prepare dinner in the kitchen. The kids are usually watching TV in another room, or playing computer games. The men eat first, while the women wait until all the food is served before eating at a seperate table with the children. Afterwards the men get drunk while the women clean up and drink tea in the kitchen. Somewhere along the way the men will erupt into a really stupid argument involving politics (my family leans towards liberal, but my uncles tend to be conservative). Since I’ve grown older I’ve had to help out in the kitchen, which I don’t mind very much except for the fact that my two female cousins don’t help out at all - especially after our two oldest male cousins got married. Our new cousins-in-law are expected to do all the work, because the women who marry into the family are considered beneath the women who are born into the family - so even though they are older than my cousins and me they have to call us agashi - rough English translation: young lady, or miss. It annoys me to no end.

On the other hand, I really enjoy my mother’s side of the family. There are six of us cousins - I am the oldest, and the youngest is ten years younger than me - and we get along awesomely. Everyone is expected to help out in the kitchen, and after dinner we’ll usually play some board games before the adults knock back a few while the kids go and amuse themselves. Usually we’ll rent a movie or just sit around and chat.

Awww. I miss my cousins.

All right, it’s off to work. Blah.

14

I went back and looked at last week’s MMP and discovered I missed a momentous occasion. Thus, even though it’s late…

<AHEM> CLEARING THROAT <AHEM>

**
HAAAPPPYYY BIIIRRRTTTHHHDDDAAAYYY TOOOOOO YOUUUUUU!!!
HAAAPPPYYY BIIIRRRTTTHHHDDDAAAYYY TOOOOOO YOUUUUUU!!!
HAAAPPPYYY BIIIRRRTTTHHHDDDAAAYYY DEEEAAARRR SSSNNNAAAKKKEEESSS!!!
HAAAPPPYYY BIIIRRRTTTHHHDDDAAAYYY TOOOOOO YOUUUUUU!!!
**

15

Cool OP. I’m afraid gatherings in my family are virtually non-existent. My mother and father split when I was quite young and I really didn’t have any other family that lived close by save for an uncle, so any holiday celebrations were pretty much just me and my dad. There were times when I went to visit my mother, or when dad and I went to another relative’s places for one holiday celebration or another, but those were mostly the exception.

I didn’t really mind that though. Big family affairs were fine once in a while, but it was just as nice to have a quiet holiday fête with just the two of us and a mini-feast.

So we got hit with a fairly impressive snow storm over the weekend. Several inches stuck to the ground. The temperature was surprisingly moderate though, and Sunday, though misty and foggy, was actually very pleasant to be out in. This morning however, despite the temperature being unchanged, was quite blustery and felt a whole hell of a lot colder than it was.

And of course, because of my recent absenteeism, I too missed that special occasion, so…

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SNAKES![/center]

16

As promised, repeat performance…

~~~ Happy Birthday, Snakes! ~~~

17

BarbeeDoll[sup]TM[/sup] and I usually split the holiday entertaining these days. She does Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve and I do Christmas Day and Easter. No matter where we are, there is generally waaaaaaaay too much food and booze and we all end up sitting outside on the “smoker’s porch” because the Dolls still smoke. We are very casual and have a lot of fun.

Mr. Anachi and I went to the Depot on Saturday morning and bought new Christmas figures for the yard. We were tired of the grazing deer which we’ve had for about 11 years. We settled on a polar bear holding a ball and two penguins. Yep, that sure says Christmas! :wink: We also got some cool twinkly icicle lights.

Work today is…meh.

Toodles

Tupug

18

Happy Birthday, Snakes!!

Great op, GT. Gatherings in our family these days tend to be very small since we’re all scattered to the four winds – just amongst my cousins on my mom’s side (and there are only 11 of us), we’re located in Maryland, Oklahoma, Iowa, California, Washington, and Hawaii. So entire family get-togethers are few and far between.

We did have one many years ago for my grandma’s 85th birthday – the family decided we should have ONE big get-together while everybody was alive and happy, instead of at a funeral, as usually happened. It was a delightful weekend of different groups forming and re-forming chatting and eating and moving around all over the place; I still have fond memories of the wonderful time we had. These days, though, it’s mostly small conversations amongst small groups because we seldom get more than 2 or 3 together at one time.

Even my own immediate family is too spread out for holiday get-togethers except on rare occasions – we’re in Maryland, my kids are in Nebraska and Idaho, and my mom and sister and her kids are in Washington and California. So once again, geography is the deciding factor.

My dad’s side of the family would get together for my grandmother’s birthdays, starting at about 95 and going through her 102nd. (She passed away shortly before her 103rd.) That was always a nice bunch of people; lots of happy visiting.

The good thing about both sides of my family is that get-togethers almost never involve fighting. Even my father and one of my mom’s sisters, who hated each other cordially for many years, would behave; they’d each save their nasty comments about the other for behind their backs, as is appropriate in such situations. :smiley:

One of my cousins on my mom’s side hoped to arrange a family reunion this next spring while our parents are still alive, but all the parents then refused to travel. :frowning: So I guess it won’t happen, unfortunately. It would have been fun.

It’s a sunny and warmish but VERY windy morning here. A few minutes ago I saw an empty soda box go blowing down the street, and it was out of sight in a matter of moments. Probably what this means is that every leaf in the whole damn neighborhood will blow into our yarn. :frowning: The tree in front of my office window, that had all its beautiful red/orange leaves as of yesterday afternoon, is now about 98% bare. And that’s the smallest tree around our yard. :frowning: I see a lot of leaf raking/gathering/bagging for pickup in our future…at least they do a special pickup here and recycle the leaves. So I don’t feel so bad about piling up a couple dozen bags gathered from our slightly-more-than-postage-stamp-sized yard. :eek:

Anyway, I’ve got lots to do today so should probably do it. After I finish drinking coffee; what’s important, after all? :smiley:

ETA: I forgot to add that Snowbunny called a little while ago all excited because they got a bunch of snow overnight and more will be falling all day. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow! :smiley:

19

I had dismissed class a few minutes early today and was discussing final essays with some of my students when one of the other teachers barged in with teacher evaluations. For the record, I’d already had a somewhat negative experience with this teacher in question; at the beginning of the semester he’d made a suggestive comment to me (something along the lines of “I know Korean women” accompanied by a leer) and I’ve seen him flirting with the admin staff rather inappropriately, IMO. I was reminded why I disliked him so much when he told one of my students to “shut up” (it was said in a joking manner, but I still thought it was very unprofessional) and THEN he told me I needed to leave now so the students could do their evals. Well, I’d dismissed class early today so most of my students were already gone; couldn’t this be done on Wednesday? No, because he was too lazy to come to work early enough to catch my 8am students unless it was at the very end of class. So what about the students who aren’t here? Screw them, apparently. Well, I’m in the middle of a conversation here; I would appreciate it if you could wait a few minutes. No. I have to leave now. :dubious: Why the hell wasn’t I informed that there would be an interruption in my class today? Because I didn’t need to know. This was said with such a smug look on his face; I briefly contemplated furthering the confrontation, but then decided it wasn’t worth it and walked away, venting my bile on That Guy instead (who happens to sit next to me at work).

Sarte was right. Hell is other people.

20

What an asshat, Haze. Can you complain to someone higher up about him?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SCL!!!
Cold has come back. Doing to drink tea and dismally survey the huge amount of baking dishes and other related party-stuff diaster. I think I can get through all of it today, working slowly. I feel all logey and out of it.

Did I mention the mountain of stuff I got? Our RCIA guy’s wife (and one of our sponsors), her kids need to start producing grandchildren. She bought something like five really beautiful outfits with matching blankets and stuff. They’re amazing, but I think I should email all her children and tell them to get going on the marriage-and-babies thing.

I feel faintly guilty about it all.