Large Family Gatherings. Heaven or Hell?

August bank holiday, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Wedding anniversaries.

Weddings ... and ... of course... funerals.!

Just a few of the times you may find yourselves one big happy family with countless relations present.

Or Not!!! Not one big happy family, that is.

My dad was one of 8 children, who all married and had quite a few children each.

When l was little, my dads´mutterings of .....¨¨Brrr... You can choose your friends, but you can´t choose your family......¨made no sense to me.

I, loved big family gatherings. For one thing they were rare, and for another they always seemed to involve presents, gifts, of all kinds. What child would not look forward to such occasions...

My dad, for all his grumbling before hand, always seemed to be the first to get everyone dancing., he´d be singing, telling jokes. Obviously enjoying himself. Even though his humour could sometimes be a little on the ´black´side.

e.g. At a family wedding, he remarked....Äh! well, raise your glasses..... next time we meet like this one of us will be missing!¨ Ha Ha Ha.¨Remember NO putting glasses down on ¨the coffin, whichever one of us is inside it¨......

All his brothers and sisters actually laughed.! What a family. Guess it´s the Irish in us.

As l grew older l still enjoyed meeting up with family members who live so far away that it was a rare treat to spend time with them. I still do.

However, there is always what some of us call a ¨great Aunt Maud¨who is so old , so scary, no-one ever wants to stay at her house overnight. Not unless ´there are at least 50 of us anyway.

I´ve been thinking up my excuses for the next event that will include Great Aunt Maud, just in case l happen to draw the short straw and be the ´chosen one´to spend the night at her eery abode.

1. Thank you, but l really don´t want to put you to any trouble. You´ve just had 2 hip replacements, and l know you are as young as you feel, aunty, but 95 is a good age for taking things easy.

2. You still have your driver, so why not stick to the routine that you love and we´ll go out to lunch or whatever you´d like to do.

3. You are barking mad! My brothers are afraid they´ll have to remove my dead body from your house after you´ve knifed me.

4. Every Time l go near even the slight vicinity of the attic, the nightmares come flooding back and they last for months.

5. The lovely room, you refer to as ¨Dims´bedroom¨resembles a church.

Is it possible to get any more images, icons, crosses or voodoo dolls into one room.

l think not.!!!!!!!O, and please don´t try.

I hope that l will always manage to be kind enough to use no1 or 2 , but one of my brothers is already preparing to use no 3.

                       A little tolerance needed, l think.

It´s perfectly normal for siblings to have some rivalry, often causing a quarrel to erupt.

It´s perfectly normal for the poor hostess to be slightly frayed at the edges. (to put it mildly)

But if only we could ALL for one day be totally self LESS. Be glad that we have a family.

There are hundreds of thousands of people on the planet  who would be so, so happy merely to have a family.

Count your blessings if you have a family, even if the re-unions are not exactly what you want.

My dear old dad, bless him, was the first to grumble when the invitation would arrive, then the first to become the ´life and soul´of the party.

l do my best to imitate him.