Monday, July 31, 2006

Family Reunion is Finished

Whew. I pulled it off.
Once I accepted this assignment to plan our family reunion 2 years ago was not sure I could pull it off. It came through with no problems, everyone had a blast. Everyone tells me it'll be a tough thing to out do in 2008 when the next reunion happens.
There were 75 people that came from all over the US to Houston, California, Miami, Panama City, Maryland, Virginia, and Detriot. The activities were held at the Greenspoint Marriot and they did a wonderful job providing the reservation room as well as the banquet room. The itenerary was a meet and greet Friday night, bus tour of Houston with a stop at the Buffalo Solddier museum and Drexler's BBQ for lunch. I actually saw attractions in Houston I'd run by hashing, but didn't know what they were (Project Row Houses, the Water Wall, and several homes in River Oaks).
Saturday night was the banquet/dance. Every year we honor one family member. This year is was my grandmother, Marie Jackson (she had no idea it was coming). All of her children / grandchildren presented her with roses. As well as a plaque from the reunion committee. The party lasted until 2am Saturday, I even taught my cousin how to work my DJ equipment. She's a natural.
If you haven't been to a family reunion or hosted a big event like this I highly encourage it. If I can plan a multi-day event for 75 of my family members who would not hesitate to tell me if I screwed something up, anyone can do it. The secret is to get other people who have expertise to do most of the work for you. The people at the Marriot were wonderful and certainly know how to put on an event, the banquet facilities were wonderful, the dinner was excellent. The tour company I used, Cosmo Cool Concepts, took care of everything on the tour for Saturday. All I did was make sure people got up in time for the tour. Delegate and leave the hard work to the professionals, that's what they get paid for. All I had to do was manage and coordinate.
You never know who you're gonna meet. At the last reunion I meet a cousin that lived a few miles from me in Houston. She is pretty cool, I can think of at least one hasher who was hitting on her. Some of you met her at my new years eve party two years ago. She wants to start training to do the half marathon next year as well as get out and meet more people, so I think she's going to start to hash on Sunday and come to happy hour.
All in all a fun time. Everyone is still talking about how much fun they had.

5 comments:

HOV said...

Of course you pulled it off. You're Rubbin! You always manage to make everyone feel comfortable and at home. Your confidence and free spirit allows everyone around you to let loose and have fun. That’s why we love you!

Spotty said...

Is that your family in the pic? Those look like hashers to me.

RTBW said...

my cousin is the girl sitting next to little pu$$y. i'll try to find a better pic of her and pics from the reunion.

Denial Queen said...

Any family members that hash are cool ....

All Head, No Shaft said...

That is the cousin who promised me a picture of a certain member (eh-eh, he said member) of her family who hashes and, at one time, wore an afro.