Family Vay-cay-shun (aka, BEACHWEEK)

So, every year, my family does this giant beachweek/family reunion trip. It's a whole lot of fun, usually a little bit of drama (put 20+ Italians and Germans in one house for one week, it's unavoidable), and more calories that is necessary to count.

I love my family. I love that this is OUR tradition. My Dad started this because he remembers going away for the summers with his cousins. He didn't want the distance between us in VA and the rest of our family in NY to prevent us from knowing our cousins. It's wonderful, and we all count down to it every year.

This year is our 10th year, which is really exciting. Me Madre and Padre started doing this for our whole family - they are kind enough to rent the house and invite everyone under the sun. First it was just us and my dad's brother's families. Then my mom invited her sister. Then grandparents and step-siblings were invited, and more. Now, we're up to about 35 people or so, in a house that advertises beds for 18. It's a blast. Thankfully, the place is big enough that you don't have see people that are pissing you off.

For the past few years, my cousin and also very good friend, B, have planned something special. A few years ago, we collected pictures of all the attendees and family members. We posted hundreds of pictures around the house one night, and surprised everyone the next morning. One year, we custom ordered coozies (some of you know them as coolies, whatever) for every person. This year, in commemoration of the 10th anniversary, we are planning a few more surprises. The one big one is that I have gone through the trouble of hiring a professional photographer. My mom has always wanted a picture with everyone, and we either forget to do it, or can't manage to get everyone together at once. This year, B and I took it upon ourselves to block out one evening, and hired a professional to come out and get nice pictures of us all in matching/coordinating white shirts and blue jeans on the sand. Yea, we're lame.

We have told everyone to keep Sunday evening open. Please don't have anything planned for Sunday night. We haven't told everyone about the photographer yet, but we will when we get there (there has to be some element of surprise, also, I can forsee this becoming very production-like and producing a surprising number of DIVAs who are going to require a whole hair and makeup team for a beach photo shoot - back off, I'm one of them). We also should have known that the drama should begin there. All of a sudden, people are reluctant to make or commit to travel plans. Some people are planning on going to a Lil' Wayne concert (are you fucking kidding me? but, whatever). Some people have moved to friggin' Chicago and are not sure they will even be able to attend (last minute much?)

Anyway, it's not really a big deal, but I am just a little frustrated by it all. The whole event was planned because everyone is usually there on Sunday night. It's early in the week, before anyone has had too much of a chance to get sunburned or too wasted to function (yes, family vacation, and this happens 99% of the time). I guess that with my family (who I love very very much, and would do most anything for, but sometimes, I wonder about them), I shouldn't really be shocked that everyone is a drama queen and will try to make my life difficult. Because they will.

Moral of the Story: I am leaving on vacation for a week starting tomorrow. I know, it's sad. I will try my best to post while I am out of town. I am sure there will be lots of DRAMZ worth writing about. Here's to good vacations, with a bazillion of your closest relatives (did I mention that there are a bout 5 people I've never met coming this year? Yay, vacations with strangers!)

Oh, for those of you keeping score, I STILL haven't heard anything from my MIL - should be interesting. I am kind of expecting one of her 14 page letters in the mail today or tomorrow, and I haven't decided if I will read it, or mark it "return to sender". She hasn't tried to get in touch with the hubs either. I am just wondering about this because my birthday is next Saturday, and usually she'll call or send a card. Maybe I pissed her off enough that she doesn't want to do all those things! Could it be true? :)