My brother has a four bedroom house. Last weekend that house contained 11 adults and 11 children. The four married couples each got a bedroom while my two bachelor brothers got couches, my sister-in-law’s brother slept in the storage room, and the kids all slept out back in a trailer. It was pretty packed. This kind of crunch isn’t unusual for my family. We keep saying that we need to rent cabins or something, but not actually doing it. In years past my main focus during reunions has been managment of my kids. I had to make sure that little ones got necessary naps and other sundry mothering tasks. Shortly after my arrival I realized that for the first time in 5 years my kids weren’t the youngest around. Not having to fend for an infant or toddler freed me up enormously. I switched myself into a ‘facilitator’ mode and quietly tried to do all I could to make the reunion go smoothly. I folded laundry, washed dishes, wiped tables, prepared some meals, and hauled stuff to and from vehicles. It sounds like I spent the whole weekend working, but there were also times where I lazed around because other people had those tasks well in hand.
Sunday night Howard and Kiki departed so that he could drive her to a camp the next day. Later that night one of my sisters was due to arrive with her husband and toddler. I realized that they had more need of the bedroom than I did, and so I cheerfully vacated and went to sleep out in the trailer with the kids. For 5 years I’ve been the one who had special consideration because my kids were youngest and because I often attended these events sans Howard. (He was too busy with Novell travel.) This year I got to give special consideration to someone else because they needed it and I didn’t. It felt so good to be in a position to give.