Ellen and Kevin Williamson's Family Blog: Daniel family reunion

I'm gonna need you to raise your glass

I don't care what you put in it

Here's to nights that you can't take back

We live hard but we love to laugh..

See, we won't forget where we came from

The city won't change us

We beat to the same drum

No, we won't forget where we came from

The city can't change us

We beat to the same drum, the same drum

La-dah-dah-dah-dah-dah-dah-dah

La-dah-dah-dah-dah-dah-dah-doe

(Hey) And no matter where we go

We always find our way back home

I've got plenty of spring updates I'll need to get around to at some point but while it's fresh in my mind, I'm posting about the Daniel family reunion last weekend.

Not every year, but at least every few years, there's a Daniel family reunion on or around Memorial Day weekend (unless there's a family wedding that summer in which case, the wedding does double duty as a reunion). We're a big group. My dad's father was one of nine kids and the reunion crowd includes all 9 of those lines, now 3 and 4 generations down. My dad has more than 20 first cousins! Most of us live in Texas, so we stay fairly close and can make it to events.

I remember the first time I introduced Kevin to the big extended Daniel family. He was my date to a cousin's wedding and we and my parents went to a spot on the groom's side of the church. Literally, just as Kevin was looking around and asking me "wow, are you related to ALL these people?", I could hear my mom, after surveying the same crowd, note that "it looks like a lot of people haven't made it yet." Both were correct ;) When Kevin and I got married ourselves, it was important to me to have all these people I'd shared so many moments with there for our big day. True to form, the Daniels turned up in full force. That's how we roll.

When we found out we were having a son, I knew Daniel was the perfect name to link him to this long lineage he was joining. And even in a big crowd, he's the only one with that first name ;)

My cousin (well, my dad's first cousin, my 1st cousin once removed) and her husband hosted this year's reunion at their ranch house in south Texas, so after the kids' last day of school program and Daniel's graduation (post to come), we loaded up the car and headed south. We got in late and were attacked by mosquitos as we unloaded the car, but the kids were excited anyway. They had been asking for weeks when we would be at the ranch, and of course they were thrilled to see Mimi and Baba.

The next day, rested and covered in bug spray and sunscreen, we headed over to the reunion. I have fond memories of playing with my own cousins and it was fun to watch Daniel and Rebecca play with my cousins' children while I enjoyed catching up with my counterparts. And of course, no reunion is complete without a hayride.

There are many pictures of me in group pictures with the cousins of my generation as we got older through the years. Now our kids are the youngest group picture and we've graduated to the parent level. It was a bit of a jolt to see that this was the first year we don't have any of the original 9 siblings at a reunion. 2 are still living, one in poor health, the other just unable to attend. My dad and his siblings and cousins have become the senior generation.

Having kids of our own now has made my cousins and me more mindful of how lucky we are to have a big close extended family and many of us talked that day about how we'll need to take a bigger role in ensuring the reunions continue and staying in touch in general. The family heritage was a gift handed down to us that we hold in trust to pass down to our own children.

The kids-there are a lot more of them than there were last time we met in 2012!