Food, games and family. And if your part of my family add in a healthy prayer prior to digging into said food. Also a few old people shaking their heads at the bikinis young girls wear these days. (The only bikini wearers were under 7) Don’t forget the sunburns, lots of sand, a family dog, some water slides and bounce houses, plus five hours or so sitting around catching up on the events of the last year.
Most of my family lives in my immediate area, within an hours driving distance. So we see each other often, usually every Sunday at our family church. But we have others whom have adventurous spirits. Three couples to be exact who teach with Teachers International, so every two years they get a new assignment. This year they’ll be heading to UAE, Germany and Bali. I’m jealous. Of all of them. Don’t get me wrong, I love where we live. I love that my parents are five miles away, and my mother in law a little farther. I love that we see our family so often, that we are so connected. But that sense of exploration, wonder lust, just takes over every year at the family reunion.
I’ve done my share of world traveling, I’ve been lots of places, visiting many different cultures. But to fully immerse yourself into another community must be awesome. To really find the things that make these far away places so magical, mystical, special, that’s what I am missing. I revel in their stories of food adventures and mishaps. As they recount the bathroom situation in the Amazon, I imagine the large spiders they watched for and the bats they latter learned lived under the toilet seats. I squeal with delight and horror. I’m afraid of both of these creatures.
My daughter says she is going to go there to catch bugs. I hope she does. We talk of a family trip to Egypt to visit second cousins, after all we’d have a place to stay. And since they are teaching, they get pretty nice housing, and it would be so educational. But I fear it is just a conversation. That we won’t really go there in the next two years, possibly never. They all have little condos here in Northwest and the Pearl for when their home. Going downtown would be a vacation for me. Maybe I could borrow the condo and have a Mom’s weekend of shopping. Also wishful thinking.
I’m also thankful that my two girls and the other little ones running around in bathing suits, smelling of summer get to hear these stories. Will know that they can literally travel the world, meet new and exciting people. Even just know that there is a lot of world out there. That what used to be Russia seems steeped in drama, the kind of mystique that one finds in old movies from the Forties. But it’s beautiful and the scenery vast; changing often; much like Oregon’s. And that a family can stay in a beautiful house with a pool for $100 a night. I am planning that trip as we speak.
I can’t wait for next summers reunion and we’ve only just cleaned up from this years. Some Aunts and Uncles linger, not wanting it to end, knowing it has. One jokes that you should never be that last to leave a party, I tease him that it’s not a party if you haven’t served wine. (We haven’t, about half of our family doesn’t drink.) And it’s nowhere near midnight, it’s not even 5, so I’m in no hurry for people to leave either.
I realize that here with family, all of them. Cousins, second cousins, cousins once removed…this is the only place in the world I want to be.
