Family vs Relatives

We had a family reunion this weekend.. My fathers side which is huge. There was 13 children in his Dad's family so close to 500 people are invited to this thing. However, we have all grown up and changed our beliefs in what family is. Life is very busy for most of us, and driving any distance on a summer weekend ( when there is so little of them) is usually not a priority. The only reason we made it was because it was close to my parents farm and my parents had my kids... so sucked in!

The last few years have proven to show what family is.. the definition definitely does not include "those who you have blood ties too" as often as my fathers generation feels it should. I have 30+ first cousins.. and I don't have ANY one of theirs addresses nor phone numbers. I do however have some close ties to people in my life who are by chance 2nd cousins, and friends who my kids acknowledge as Aunt and Uncles. The reason they do.. these people know where I live.. what I do and what we enjoy in life. These are the people that when your world is spiralling out of control are there on the phone at 6 am , in their car to drive 5 hours to pack your stuff or beat the person that's upset you. You know.. the people that would literally do ANYTHING in the world for you.. These people.. are FAMILY. I will argue this till the day that I die!

We chose with the short amount of summer weekends we have not to go to a wedding last weekend of a cousin who lives 4 blocks from me yet for a whole year we have never seen him, don't know where he works nor have his phone number. So of course my dad's so called close family of 40+ people ( none which have my contact info nor call to see if I'm alive) were really upset over this. So all in all my mom said that she wasn't my boss and I was 30 years old and could make my own decision...
Family reunion comes.. and I had to hold my own.. with people who have NO idea what I even do for a living.. So I did.. I gave them straight up answers....

" We chose to do something else as a family because do not have alot of free time in the summer and it didn't work out" When all I wanted to do was scream  " who are you to obligate me to a wedding for someone I don't know.. who has no idea who I am what I do nor where I live" But.. we don't talk to family like that right ......