Family

My sister in law and her husband at the Quay yesterday.

Today the Holte family (my grandmother's maiden name) had a family gathering at Sullivan Park in Surrey.  Basically it was everyone on my mom's side there, as well as my mother's aunts and uncles and cousins, some of whom I have met and dimly remembered, and others that I basically didn't even talk to.
Everyone sort of lumped themselves into their various tribes, like at some grade nine high school dance.  A few people came over to see who I was and my mom introduced me to them.  One gentleman was my mom's cousin.  It was really nice that he made the effort to come over and introduce himself to me but, as I looked at this fit man in his fifties I thought "Now what?".
We get together once every few years, I can't remember your name or where you are from or how you are related to me and we are related and you seem nice, but do I have to give my life story and family history to every person here that doesn't know me?
I suppose, in hindsight, that I feel bad (or more aptly put: guilty) that a few people attempted to get to know me and I wasn't as engaging or interested as I ought to have been.  There are worse things in life than friendly, extended family members that are trying to learn more about you.  In the future I think it would behoove me to use it as practice with my social skills (which are nonexistent) and also because hey, you never know where you might meet someone that you really hit it off with.

Family function coping skills.  Circa 2012.

At one point I was chatting with my cousin and we broached the subject of children as, now, I am an aunt.  He said he had been on the fence about kids in the past year, but has since decided that the pros outweigh the cons and I'm inclined to agree.  His brother (my cousin) and his brother's wife were there with their two kids and it was great seeing my uncle take care of the two little ones so my cousin's wife could finish her meal in peace, and seeing how happy my grandmother was to be with her great grandchildren.
There's that tribal thing again.
So, sadly, I think that today was a fail on my part because, aside from making four bean salad, I really didn't make an effort and for someone that has a very small immediate tribe, that's rather pathetic.
To counterbalance this, however, we did meet up with Michael's sister and brother in law from London (Ontario) at the Quay last night, before we all headed out to Horseshoe Bay for dinner.  It was a perfect night for it and it was nice to catch up.
I will try harder to drink more be more social at future family gatherings.
My family's actually pretty awesome.