We had a reunion last summer after many years of not having one. It wasn't near as organized as most of the suggestions listed above. We plan to have another one this summer. Hopefully better and more innovative this year. Turn out was light last year but hoping for a bigger turn out this summer. We reserved a shelter at one of the local parks and put an ad in the local newspaper giving the date and place. Some people received personal invitations if they lived further away and didn't subscribe to the local newspaper. The ad was costly so probably would have been cheaper to send out invitations to each family. I do family history research so I took along my book for everyone to look at. Then I also made a poster board with wedding pictures of my grandparents, parents and aunts and uncles. Underneath each picture I put their birthdates, wedding dates and if deceased put that date also. Both were a big hit.We had a playground in front of our shelter for the smaller children and was also a swimming beach nearby. Food was potluck and worked out well. People just had fun visiting. Most of the crowd was seniors so I don't think games would have gone over too well at our gathering but I love hearing all the ideas. I took my camera and snapped pictures of each individual family as they arrived. Then we took one group shot but some had already left. I wish I had thought of the group shot earlier in the day. I love the idea of hiring a photographer but that would get too expensive for our group. I also have heard where some reunions each family wears different colored tshirts to identify which group they belong to. We had name tags at our gathering. One other reunion we attended had a notebook on a table as you entered the shelter and you wrote your name, address, email and a memory of your descendants. Everybody could read those notes and next year it will be shared at the next reunion. Also one couple was in charge of pictures and then they posted them to a web site to be shared with the reunion attendees. All the pictures were labeled so if you forgot some names it was a nice reminder. Keep posting ideas. I will be checking to see what other ideas come up.

For a family reunion, it might be nice to have some type of game tournament. You could set up a chess, checkers, backgammon, or cribbage tournament. These are games most adults know, or could easily learn. And many families have the equipment, so you won't be out buying several copies. This would give an excuse for each adult to sit across from another and talk and catch up with each others lives. You could then have some silly prize that the winner would hang onto with instructions to bring it back for the next tournament when the family gets together again. For the kids, I bet their parents will be bringing some stuff. One fun thing might be to give each kid a glow stick. The kids can all get together and throw them up in the air making something kind of like fireworks. Or they can try to play catch with them. And they can help act as night lights just in case sleeping away from home is a little scarey. You might also want to bring some paper and crayons so that they can make pictures of all of their family or fun camping experiences or what they saw on a nature hike or whatever. For food, I too think that if each family were to take one meal it would be easiest. That way too you have your cooking and clean up crew already assigned. You could announce some basics that you will be bringing - salt and pepper, pb&j fixings just in case, etc. Also ask each family to bring one snack for everyone - fruit, cheese and crackers, smores. With each family bringing one meal and one snack, everyone knows there will be SOMETHING they will like. You will also need to determine who is bringing cooking, cleaning, serving stuff.

Thanks, Lowspark - we'll get lots of ice the morning of the picnic and our house is already baby-proofed (hooray!). I've been doing lots of laundry so there's lots of fresh towels, too - nothing like a soggy towel - yuck! Dottie - great idea about washing pot holders! They're soaking in Oxyclean right now, but I wouldn't have thought of that! I also took out a bunch of serving spoons to polish up. Yes, Lindac, I've stocked up on TP and paper towels, lol! Good reminder about the music; we have satellite radio but I need to research a couple of music types so we're not fumbling at the last minute. Time for me to find some post-its! Thanks you guys!

We have our annual family reunion in July. Since we are spread out across the U.S. we celebrate Christmas in July. Everyone looks forward to it no matter what age. How can you complain about Christmas cookies and gifts in the middle of summer? It's so much less stressful than trying to get together in December. One year Santa came from across the lake on water skis. A month or two before the reunion the organizer sends out a request for recipes and they are distributed at the reunion. This was started before we all had computers so you can imagine how the cookbook has grown. This last year I was in charge of planning. I planned a few games but nothing that required everyone to play at the same time. Google "word search" and find a site where you can do a word search puzzle for no cost. Use family names, special places, etc. (I used names and things related to the family cottage - like lake, fishing, outhouse.) I also made custom wrappers for Hershey's bars. Again, go to Google and search for custom candy bar wrappers. There are a number of sites where you can order them but I just used the sites for ideas. I used family photos - some old and some recent. Another game I planned was "guess the number of items in the jar." The closest guess won the jar. I used silly yet meaningful things like gummy worms, candy that Grandma used to buy, etc. If you can get a few facts from each person ahead of time you can play a game where you try to guess who the facts are about. Facts like I graduated from high school in 1976: I once lived in a foreign country; My spices are in alphabetical order (ok, so I am a bit compulsive but at least I can find my spices.) Fun game and you can learn a lot about each other. We also have an annual Rummy (Grandma's favorite card game) every year. If you want to get silly make temporary tatoos on your computer with your family name or initial. Think I bought the tatoo paper at Office Depot. Just have fun and don't get too serious. You want to be able to enjoy the reunion too!