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A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

decarlo

A reunion to remember

August 17, 2011

All of us at the Family Reunion in 2011

“Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family.  Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one.” – Jane Howard

Success!

After much planning and many e-mails, phone calls, Facebook messages, help from family members and other things, our first true family reunion (that I remember, anyway) went off with pretty solid weather, great food and a lot of people this past weekend.

We had nearly 50 people show up in Oneonta’s Wilber Park for the event. The range of ages was amazing and having people from my mother’s and father’s sides of the family there was awesome. Nearly 50 people showed up for the event and I had the chance to meet relatives I had not met before, which is really wild.

Family members chatting

I couldn’t have asked for a better day, either.

With rain in the forecast, originally, there was sun, good weather and a lot to do. We had good food, games and available things for kids to do. I’m not sure I could have asked for a better result.

Some things I learned, however. First, we ordered way too much chicken! With all the other food available, there was too much chicken. I’ll note that for next time. I also learned that there are so many stories to be told. I learned things about my father and that side of the family from different relatives. I learned about some family things from the opposite side, too.

At one point, I really let it soak in.

I was having my dinner, sitting across from my brother’s girlfriend’s son. As we chatted about normal things, I peered around and looked at everyone eating. I couldn’t help but smile.

Chatting it up.

I saw both sides of the family mingling.

Everyone seemed happy and joyous. Somewhere, I knew my dad (who would have loved this, by the way) was looking down and smiling. He would have been in his glory at an event like this.

It’s times like this when you have to appreciate family and know that those who have gone before us have paved the way for us. For many years, I always let work or other obligations get in the way of me going to certain family functions. An event like this made me realize that it’s time to make up that lost time.

I would call the event a success.

Mingling

It seems like most people had fun and enjoyed the spot we were in. It was perfect. We had a pavilion, set up games, a playground was close for kids, the pool wasn’t too far away and there was hiking trails and other things to do. But, people seemed to be just as interested in chatting and getting together. We started at noon and ended a bit after 9 p.m. I left realizing that this is something I want to continue doing.

So, the planning is on for the next one. I haven’t decided if I will attempt to do it yearly or every two years. I am leaning toward yearly, but understand that not everyone will be able to make it each year. Still, time moves on and getting together once a year, in my mind, is highly worth the effort. I have ideas and I plan on working on them slowly.

For now? I’ll sit back and enjoy what we had this past weekend. Then, I’ll start looking toward the next one soon enough.

To all those family members who made the trip — thanks for coming! And I look forward to seeing you at the next one!

And, of course, would it be a family reunion without a fun video during the group shot?

“Our most basic instinct is not for survival but for family.  Most of us would give our own life for the survival of a family member, yet we lead our daily life too often as if we take our family for granted.”  – Paul Pearshall

Photos from the reunion on my Flickr: Check out the set.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com.

Filed Under: Events, Family, Family reunion 2011, My world, Photography Tagged With: decarlo, family, family reunion, harmer, harmer-keogh-decarlo family reunion, keogh, reunion

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Day Zero Project: Completed No. 85

August 14, 2011

Chatting during the reunion.

A Day Zero Project goal of P.J.’s has been completed!

Goal completed: Organize and hold a family reunion.

Date completed: August 13, 2011.

Number: 85  (remember, these goals will not all be done in order. It’s a random list where the numbers actually are).

Description: Basically, I wanted to start something for a family reunion. The idea was to get the family from my mother’s and father’s side of the family to come together for a reunion. As anyone who has tried to do these knows, it isn’t easy to try and get all schedules together. But with the help of my mother, my brother, their significant others and a few others, we pulled it off.

Why I wanted to do it: I won’t like — in the past, I haven’t always been the most “family oriented” person. Not that I didn’t love family, but that I’ve missed some family functions and gatherings. And, to be honest, it was time to start seeing family at something other than weddings and funerals. Too, a bit before my father died, he had said that family is important (he was a fan of gatherings such as this) and said I needed to make sure to find a way to start getting the family together (he always thought we should have a yearly reunion). So, that was fuel for me to go at it.

How I did it: A few years ago, I got talking about this with my cousin Lauren. She kind of gave me a push to see if I could get it going. The push that was needed was to see if we could get our family (who, for the most part, is in the Philadelphia area and New Jersey). She said she and her family would come and build from there. It took longer than expected as I realized you couldn’t do this in two months. So we skipped a year and aimed for this year. We got some initial feedback on everything and then finally came up with a date.

Considering we were using a city park in Oneonta, we needed to reserve the pavilion. But, you can’t do that until March, so we needed to wait until then to make sure of the date. When that was done, we put it all in motion. Figured the food, some other things and started getting headcounts. We have a Facebook group just for this (which I’ll keep for future reunions) and some family members have connected. With the help of the family in this area (a shout out, of course, goes to my mother, brothers Pat and Joe, sister-in-law Jenn and Pat’s favorite dudette (inside joke) Dawn), we got everything together we needed. Family from afar came up with help as needed, some wonderful food and an amazing time.

This reunion, in my eyes, was a resounding success. I’ve learned a lot (I will be doing another blog post this week about the reunion and will expand there), but with nearly 50 people there, it’s something I know I want to do again, yearly if possible. There are things that will be fixed and tweaked, but knowing more now, I hope the event will just continue to grow!

About P.J.’s Day Zero Project: Day Zero is a project where people come up with 101 things to do over 1001 days. I started the project on Oct. 10, 2010 with an anticipated finish date of July 8, 2013. Goals will not be revealed until they are completed. A private list is at the Day Zero website and the list will be made public upon completion of the project. It’s my thoughts that if things are kept private, should I not do them, change or find a way around it, I’d only be cheating myself.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com.

Filed Under: Day Zero Project, Family, Family reunion 2011, My world Tagged With: day zero project, decarlo, family, family reunion, harmer, keogh, oneonta, oneonta ny

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hoohaa29

Writer who loves images just as much as words! In search of perfectly poured pints of Guinness and great hot dogs. Find me on twitter @softball29.

I guess the April Fool's joke is on us, Mother Nat I guess the April Fool's joke is on us, Mother Nature? Oh .. ha ha ha.
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I also guess this is why hitting back roads to work is good -- you can stop and take a photo and not worry about anybody coming (usually)! Main roads around here are fine for now, but it's definitely quite picturesque on the lawns/trees etc.
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#snow #winterspring #springwinter #april #blackandwhite #photography #photooftheday #goawaywinter #love #instagood #picoftheday #bestoftheday #nature #backroad #road
This was pretty relaxing and fun. #lego #legos #ea This was pretty relaxing and fun. #lego #legos #easter #legoeasterbunny #legoeaster #relax #hobby #fun
It shouldn’t be so hard to find a trash can... # It shouldn’t be so hard to find a trash can... #litter #mask #masks #blackandwhite #streetphotography
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softball29P.J.@softball29·
11 Apr

I mean, if you hold a #Wrestlemania in an open stadium... eventually rain delays had to come, right? 🤣

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RealKentMurphyKent@RealKentMurphy·
7 Apr

28 years ago The Sandlot was released and this iconic scene was brought into our lives.

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softball29P.J.@softball29·
2 Apr

New blog post: Photo Blogging Challenge (March 2021): Eight #photobloggingchallenge #pbc #challenge #blogging https://hoohaa.com/?p=15201

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