July Update

We have one year to go, give or take! The Theme "Away for the Holidays" is the clear winner. I'm wondering if "California Celebrations" would be a more appropriate title, due to the Gales actually living in California. That's what I'll change it to, unless there are any strong objections.

I think we'll take a break from reunion planning until this summer is over. Aunt T has a few leads on some beach houses for rent, so I will follow through on that. Have a good couple of months!

Cousin S

From Grandpa

I thought this was neat! Hillary is going through some old letters of Grandpa Gelder and typing them up. She's sent me a few snippits that are quite fun, but this one touched me especially:

14 May 1983

"Mother and I have been thinking that we ought to start developing a family tradition of reunions. If we are going to be together for eternity, we want to have fun together now, and also to prepare our family for eternity. It won’t be long before we will be spreading out to the four winds, and if we don’t get some traditions started now, it will be hard to get them later."

I don't think at that time he knew how spread out our families would become. But I think we have done a fairly good job of being as close as possible, in heart if not geographically. I think we have a lot of good memories and more to come. What a great thing to know that we are fulfilling one of their wishes. And what motivation to keep going. 2011 here we come.

Monthly Update June

We kind of have a 3 way tie for the number of days we should have this reunion. It seems like everyone's leaning towards 3-5 days. I suggest 4 because then each family (the 4 siblings) can take a day to plan activities and such! Perfect! Aunt T suggested that we plan it for midweek so that traveling can be done on the weekends. I think that is fine for driving, but for those wishing to fly, the weekends are usually more expensive. Maybe when we're closer to setting a date, we will decide on this issue.

I am still working on finding a location. Wouldn't it be fun to find an affordable, large enough place close to the ocean to stay at! But surprisingly it's been hard for me to find such a place. For those of you who have mad internet surfing skills and maybe a little extra time (sigh), see what you can come up with! I'm even trying a few travel agents to see if they have any ideas.

Plan B is to see if there are some free options close by the Gale home. Maybe friends and neighbors. Aunt T says she has room for a few extras and we could camp out in Cousin H's backyard if we want. And I'm sure there are plenty of hotels in the area for those who wish to go that route. We can try to make group arrangements again.

I hope to have firm dates set before the end of this summer!

Congratulations to Cousin S and his fiance K for getting engaged! We are all so happy for you both. Thank you for getting married this year and not next! I guess we'll have a prereunion for those of you attending the wedding. What fun!

Also, I didn't get any ideas for a theme from anyone! Where are you creative people? So I've come up with a few:

Gelder Survivor: For something on the competitive side - set up teams, have various challenges, and hold tribal council every night. But I don't like elininating, so we'll have some kind of friendly twist!

Away for the Holidays!: You know we don't get to spend the holidays all together very often, actually never. What if we spent 4 days catching up? We could have a New Years Eve Party, Easter Egg Hunt, 4th of July Fireworks, Halloween Costume Party, Thanksgiving Dinner, and Christmas Morning! We could even plan it around the actual 4th of July!

Gelders Guess who's coming to Dinner?: Each person would be assigned an ancestor, who they will learn as much about before hand and come to the reunion sort of as that person. They will have to drop hints in conversations and such throughout the reunion without revealing their identity until the end.

I'm not super creative, these are just a few ideas. I'm still open to suggestions if someone comes up with something awesome, please comment or email me. Otherwise I think we should put these to a vote for now! Please see the side!

Sum Up: Plan on 4 days, dates and specific location still to be determined, again congrats to cousin S, and please vote on a Theme or come up with one of your own.

Love
The other Cousin S!

Theme Ideas????

Anyone have any really great theme ideas for the reunion??? Also, don't forget to vote for number of days at the side!!!

Monthly Update

Hello all! It seems that everyone is excited for the reunion and there is a lot of consensus that we would like to stay at the same place if possible. However I realize that money is tight for most, including myself, so unless I find some really great package deal, we will probably just stay at a hotel close to Aunt T's house and plan some really fun activities in the area.

I also wanted to put this little blip from Aunt M.

"Just as an item for clarity - I am unfortunately not going to be able to help with travel and accommodation expenses this time around; I hope to be able to get myself there but others will need to start planning their own financial arrangements if they'd like to participate."

I'm sure we all agree that this is only reasonable since she was sooooo generous the last go around! So everyone start squirreling away some pennies and work some extra jobs. It will be worth it.....I promise!

All my Love,

Cousin S

Welcome!

Welcome to the Gelder Family Reunion Blog! It was sort of unofficially decided that we would have the family reunion every three years....and guess what, next year is the year! Can you believe it?!! So I've already had a chat with Aunt Theresa and it is a go for her place in 2011.

I would like to hear people sound off their ideas as far as where to stay and what to do. Aunt Theresa suggested doing some things at the Redwoods, or we talked about Yosemite before.

We do have a little decision to make right off the bat. By default we will just plan on mostly free or inexpensive activities and let everyone make their own lodging arrangements. However, if everyone wanted we could look into renting some condos or a house or something. I bring this up because we would have to start making reservations soon for next year. Do we want to pool resources and get lodging together...or should we let everyone arrange their own accomadations?

Please comment and tell me how you envision our 2011 reunion. And keep your eye on this blog because we will be doing voting (see right side) and planning here. I can't wait!