sharing

I have a large extended family. And by large I actually mean huge. My dad has 7 living brothers and sisters and most of them have children and then some have had grandchildren. If you do the math it means large family reunions.

For holidays it would be a bit challenging to find a house large enough to hold us all. Before my cousins started having their own children we would have holidays together. These would involve figuring out a way to expand the table. After all I don't know of many tables that accommodate 35-40 people.

Luckily my family is pretty handy and quite a few are in the construction trade so this was part of the fun. Think large sheets of plywood which most of the family conveniently had around their shop.

My sisters and I have named these gatherings "Schober Fests". In fact we always said you couldn't marry into the family unless you had attended at least one Schober fest. We have fun together but lets be honest if you weren't born into it it can be a bit intimidating and loud, okay that is a large understatement.

Food is very important to my family so most of the day (and days before the event) are spent preparing the food, eating the food, eating some more food, and cleaning the dishes before the next meal. Yes in my family we have the holiday meal around 1 and then we somehow feel the need to eat again around 6 or so.

The first time I had Thanksgiving with Sam's dad and stepmom I experienced a bit of culture shock. When only his dad, stepmom, brother, and the 2 of us were the only ones there at noon I started asking when everyone else was going to show up. Turns out it was just the 5 of us. Wow - growing up in my house at dinner we had a minimum of 6 for dinner every night with just my parents and sisters. I had a hard time wrapping my head around this. You can have a holiday with less than 25 people - I had no clue.

Then I started thinking - Sam had already attended several Schober Fests and survived and was still with me. I can't even imagine how he felt the first time he got together with my family. I had told him we had a big family but I don't think that even came close to preparing him. I mean tables going throughout different rooms of the house to accommodate all of us, multiple turkeys, serving up 3 plates of each items so the food would make it around the table, having to borrow silverware.

Sam doesn't even have a first cousin - not even 1. I on the other hand have 17 first cousins. I do feel badly for him but then really this is one more reason it works between us. I don't think I would want him to have a huge family - I probably have enough and we can share.

It means I get to have small intimate family gatherings occasionally with large bashes thrown in as well. In reality I get the best of both worlds - large boisterous noisy family events with smaller ones where we can actually hear each other talk. Sharing is good.