Day 307: Large family, small family, close family, far family

During my grand parents' generation they had a lot of kids. My mom has alot of cousins. Each cousin has a few kids. I have many second cousins. I mostly see my second cousins at weddings and funerals and the rare family get together thru out the year. Because we don't see each other that often, I have decided to organize a get together. My sister is in town for awhile and it is a good opportunity for her to see everyone. Since the last time she was here, a few cousins have had babies.

It's very difficult. I don't see my second cousins very often so I don't have their contact information. Some of them are on Facebook and that is an easy way to contact them. Unless they don't check their FB pages. I have gotten my mom to contact their parents for their contact information. It's really frustrating because some of them don't respond to my emails. I'm not sure if they haven't received the emails or just don't want to respond to me.

Family is more important to some people than others. Some families are dysfunctional. Some families are extremely close. I went to an ex's Christmas dinner and his whole family was 12 people. That included aunts, uncles, grandparents and cousins. That was extremely small to me. Maybe I'm used to my family functions? My dad has 4 sisters in the states. They all have families and they have families. Every time there is a family function, there is at least 20 people. If everyone can make it to the function, then there are about 40 people.

I think in my generation will have less children than my parents generation. My parents generation had about 6 - 10 kids. I have noticing my generation having 1 - 2 kids. It is very expensive to have children. I think kids are spoiled with more brand name clothing and toys and electronics.