Family Reunion

Families are or can be a strange breed. My family isn’t particularly close as a whole, but some family members are closer than others.

I’m jealous of those families that are close, there whenever you need them, see each other on a regular basis, sometimes disagree, but still love each other.

My husband, Bill, comes from a close-knit family. They are Greek and the Greek culture is very family oriented. Bill has two sisters, neither of which he’s ever, even in childhood, had an argument or disagreement with. You could say they live in harmony. They respect each other.

Recently my sister who lives in another state said she and her husband were going to come visit for Labor Day weekend. Great! She also mentioned that her son, his girlfriend, and his children were planning to come for the same weekend. They live out of state also. Coincidentally my oldest son who lives in Miami said they were planning to come for the same weekend. This was an absolute first on every level.

Hells bells…it sounds like a family reunion.

My other son who lives about 45 minutes from me, has a beautiful home on a lake and it was decided that the weekends events would be held there. Let the planning begin.

The lake house has needed some updating for some time and my son just never felt an urgency to get it done. Now he felt the urgency.

Immediately my mind went to the menu and helping my son get his house in order. Being a single guy, it’s always picked up but with family having never seen the house, we wanted to make sure it was in tiptop shape.

While my son was making plans with his contractor for a few projects, I jumped in by stripping the house of almost anything that wasn’t nailed down and washing it. I stripped every bed, took down almost all the curtains, grabbed very pillow, throw pillow, pillow sham, comforter, and anything else that I felt needed washing.

Over the course of two weeks, I drove back and forth a couple times a week picking up more laundry and dropping off what had already been washed and hung outdoors to smell absolutely amazing.

My son even went so far as hiring a cleaning crew to clean his house top to bottom. There is also a large living space above the garage, as well as a sunroom on the front of the house facing the lake. We met at the house a couple of times, moved furniture, hung pictures, and found places for all the extras he was purchasing.

The contractor installed cabinets and a sink to make a kitchenette in the room above the garage. New floor tile and walls went into the bathroom up there also. There is a small wall in the kitchen of the main house needed that ‘something’ extra and wainscotting was installed and trimmed out. A tufted storage bench was placed against that wall with some beach house-related throw pillows. The contractors wife painted the guest room in the main house as well as the bathroom in the in the room above the garage.

We sprayed everything for weeds, cleaned up the beach / firepit area by the lake, took inventory of lifejackets for the water activities, and ordered any extras that were needed.

Two days before the ‘reunion’, kayaks and paddleboards were delivered, put in the water and tied to the pier. The pontoon boat was gassed up, cleaned up, and ready to go. A trampoline and jungle gym were installed in the backyard for all the kids.

Everything was beginning to take shape. It’s amazing what you can all get done in a short period of time when you’re on a mission.

My son and I were exhausted the Friday before Labor Day because in addition to all the preparations, I still worked two days that week, my son still worked, my mother had 2 dental emergencies, and I still had my own house to clean and meals to make. Oh, and I had to bake two cakes for the weekend and make three salads for our main event on Saturday. An absolute labor of love.

Friday I drove to Chicago to pick up my son and his wife, my sister arrived at my house, my nephew and his family arrived at my house later in the day…and then we all hopped back in our cars to head out to the lake for a good old-fashioned fish fry followed by fishing from the pier and a bonfire.

Saturday. It was finally here. Back in the cars and headed out to the lake for breakfast. The afternoon was food, drink, swimming, water sports, and whatever you wanted to do. A cousin and her husband stopped by for a few hours to visit with family they haven’t seen in years. Evening came with a pontoon boat ride to see the sunset on the other end of the lake, a bonfire, and fireworks display compliments of my son. It was simply magical.

The weather the entire weekend could not have been more perfect. Everybody had fun, relaxed, laughed, talked, and compliments flew to my son and I for all the work we put into setting this up. There was even mention of doing this every year. Nothing, absolutely nothing, went wrong.

It truly was one of the best weekends of my life.