Hugs, smiles, tears, laughter, gift exchanges, photo albums….all of these have one thing in common – our annual family reunion. Our annual family reunion has become one of our family traditions that we participate in and love each year. Once a year, we come together and enjoy family, food, drinks, gifts, nature, and more. We have now dedicated our go-to location for the reunions as Camp Stockton. Both kids and adults have so much fun!
I remember being a young girl and going with my parents to our family reunions. Everyone would dress up and we’d have a holiday dinner – visiting, eating, and making memories. At some point during the reunion, the kids would open up a gift from their parents and then the parents would hold a gift exchange. It was so much fun!
Some of the women who are no longer with us played an important role in these family reunions. They set the date, time and place, as well as sent out the invites and put together the menu. They encouraged all of the family members to be a part of these yearly festivities. As a younger generation, some of us were worried these family reunions might disappear because the older generation who had made them happen were no longer with us. Well, it was actually quite the opposite!
Many of us have families of our own and came together in agreement that we would continue holding our family reunions….and we actually liked them quite a lot anyways! We come together once a year and celebrate with a Christmas theme, whether the reunion is in July, October, or December. We still have the holiday meal, the family gift exchange, the kids opening presents, and have added a new tradition to the mixture.
While dinner is cooking, we all gather together and talk about our year and some of the big life changes we went through (whether a new boyfriend, an engagement, a marriage, a new baby, new job, or new home). It’s really awesome to hear how everyone has gone through changes and grown over the past year. Another big part of our family reunions are the scrapbooks that my stepmom puts together and adds to year after year. Each year, we have the opportunity to look back on our reunions and remember those memories we made as a family. It’s really a great feeling when you look back and see pictures from the past.
One of the things I love about YesVideo is that we can preserve these family traditions and memories so we (and our future generations) have them for years to come! Whether it’s video or pictures, all of these can be kept safe and beautified through the YesVideo service. I am so glad we have YesVideo to keep these memories and family traditions alive for years to come!
Shannon Gosney is the author of The Mommy-Files, a national blog with a loyal following. With 3 active boys and and an active life, she loves living on the Central Coast near San Luis Obispo, California. A full-time Social Media and Professional Blogger, Shannon also serves as a National Brand Ambassador for many well-known companies. Her blog focuses on motherhood, family fun activities, traveling and recipes while providing, professional opinions, product, performance, restaurant, and various business reviews. You can also find her online on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Instagram, and Pinterest.
Love this. Pictures are just so much fun. My family picks on me because I take so many pictures of random things, but you never know when you want to look back at those pics and every moment counts when it comes to memories in photos!