Looking Back At 2013 - Year In Review

It's always a good idea to look back on the highlights of the year and consider the rewards for all your hard work. This week Brenda and I look back on this past years most memorable moments promoting family reunion event planning. And what an exciting year it's proved to be. Here are some of our favorites we thought you would enjoy.

Fresh Family Reunion Planning Tips

This article is written with the novice family reunion event planner in mind. It focuses on practical family reunion planning tips and helpful guides and ideal event planning resources to help get the event planning ball rolling.
http://familyreunionplanners.blogspot.com/2013/11/family-reunion-planning-tips.html

A Book of Their Lives

A tribute to friendship and special ways to celebrate the times of your life. 
http://familyreunionplanners.blogspot.com/2013/07/a-book-of-their-lives.html

Our Premier Genealogy Presentation Awards Program

Genealogist and family reunion planners are recognized for creative and practical genealogy presentation designs in the form of art, information and data displays and media presentations.
http://familyreunionplanners.blogspot.com/2013/10/october-2013-fimarks-genealogy.html

8 Ideas To Celebrate Annual Family Reunion Planners Month

The eighth annual family reunion planners month was all about bringing event planners, vendors and the community at large to rally around the one activity devoted to promoting family values - famiy reunion planning. This article presented some really fun and entertaining ideas for this beloved annual observation.
http://familyreunionplanners.blogspot.com/2013/10/8-ideas-to-celebrate-annual-family.html

Family Reunion Freebies

One of the more popular subjects covered this year was all about freebies and who doesn't like free stuff? The family reunion freebies presented in the article were impossible to resist with all the cost saving advantages for reunion event planners. 
http://familyreunionplanners.blogspot.com/2013/10/family-reunion-planning-freebies.html

How To Keep Those Family Reunion Flies Away

The most perfectly planned outdoor event could easily have been ruined by pesky flies and bothersome little critters. This article presented key remedies to getting rid of bugs once and for all. Best of all they really work.
http://familyreunionplanners.blogspot.com/2013/06/diy-family-reunion-fly-repellant.html

5 Great Fund Raising Ideas

Our most popular article yet. Readers found out the most effective ways to raise funds for a family reunion event and fun practical ways to drum up support for their favorite cause.
http://familyreunionplanners.blogspot.com/2013/03/well-family-reunion-event-is-just.html

How To Design A Family Reunion T-shirt

Most of us are not masters of brush and canvas. But this article proves that designing the family reunion t-shirt has never been easier. We learned how to go about finding the right theme logo and slogan to taking orders and organizing distribution. 
http://familyreunionplanners.blogspot.com/2013/03/how-to-design-family-reunion-t-shirts.html

200 Great Family Reunion Recipes

Whether you're snowed in or just want to fill the house with the warm and cozy scent of sweet baked treats this article pointed the way to whipping up some good old fashioned wholesome tasty treats. All the most popular recipes on Pinterest are brought right to your doorstep or should we say touch screen. And now there are literally thousands of Pinterest recipes to enjoy. Take another look and find the ideal recipe for your next special get-together.
http://familyreunionplanners.blogspot.com/2013/02/200-pinterest-family-recipes.html

7 Fun Snow Games You Just Gotta Try

So what to do with all that snow? Have fun in it that's what. This article showed our readers how to make the most when the whole family is snowed in.
http://familyreunionplanners.blogspot.com/2013/02/7-fun-snow-games-you-just-gotta-try.html

Incoming 2013 - Family Night Highlights

INCOMING 2013
The Fall has passed and winter is upon us. Before you know it, it will be spring again. Can you believe that 2012 has come and gone? It was back in 2008 that we wrote... "Before you know it we'll be sipping a frosty glass of lemonade to the beat of "Family Reunion" on a warm Sunny day while the youngn's laugh and play." Well 2008 thru 2012 has passed but we do have our memories don't we? And that's what it's all about. Even now we are halfway thru the month of January and the rest is about to be gulped down.

NO REGRETS
Don't drink your refreshing cup of life to quickly. Learn how to truly savor the moment. Enjoying the moment is not as easy as it sounds. But when you consider the fact that all we really have are our memories, the present time, and the happiness we hope to enjoy in the near future making memories free of needless regrets has much to do with knowing how to enjoy the moment. 

1. Don't drown out past regrets in bottles of brew and addicting substances. This will only conjure up foolish talk and actions we end up regretting later. 

2. Don't attempt to mimic a pretense of happiness. Why pretend when you can experience the real thing? Give yourself permission to be truly happy. Love, loyalty and commitment make it happen.

3. Don't try to live someone-else's life. Help them live their own life and always live your own.
Learn from mentors example and be an example yourself.

4. Trying to relive the good old days in our present time won't work. Focus on living in the here and now. Only then can you look back fondly and enjoy a memory with substance, meaning and purpose.

5. Much of your success in creating a memory has to do with good planning and keeping things simple enough to enjoy the present. Give yourself permission to enter the moment, the present day and hour and make the most of it with the ones you love rather than fussing over endless details.

NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS
What are your New Years resolutions? How close are you to meeting your goal? Here's are some tips that help make your resolutions a reality.

1. Spend more time with family even if it means writing letters, making phone calls or video conferencing. Not a phone person? Don't worry about it. Set a date to get together and pass it on.

2. Don't just talk about what you want to do. Make it happen with good planning. 

3. Planning an event? Begin by considering the purpose of the event and what you want to accomplish and express. Create a theme. 

4. Put an event planning date on your calendar and think about the features of the event until the planning date arrives.


2ND ANNUAL FAMILY NIGHT

Brenda and I put on a successful 2nd Annual Family Night last month for family and friends. We enjoyed professionally  composed music by close friends of the family. We enjoyed slideshows of our young from birth to present. We even composed our own background music for a family musical movie. Our purpose in doing this was six-fold.

1. Bring our family back together purely to celebrate family values and take pride in our roles as parents and siblings.

2. Teach the importance of putting family first over and above secular interests.

3. Teach our youth solid relationship skills while building character and unbreakable bonds.

4. Provide a positive pro-active outlet to direct all of our creative energy and inspire our youth to think about what they want to do with their life.

5. Fill the need for paternal affection

6. Heal aching hearts needing to confront family loss and provide closure.

7. Learn how to celebrate new life.

This time around their were fewer delays and disappointments. More time for hugs, taking photos and shaking hands. Our 2nd Annual  Family Night event was the most wonderful and beautiful moment that I and most of the attendees had ever experienced.

My most gratifying memory is that 2 years ago the whole thing was conceived by Brenda and I on our family summer vacation.



WATCH THEM GROW

Planning a family reunion is a great reason to come together. Be it to quilt, knit, exchange ideas, photos and recipes or just reminisce. When you think about it the time spent in preparation for a family reunion is as meaningful as the event itself. It's a time to enjoy the moment.

A proverb ways, "Wisdom is the prime thing. Highly esteem it, and it will exalt you. It will glorify you because you embrace it. To your head it will give a wreath of charm a crown of beauty it will bestow upon you. Another says, 
even the ant is “instinctively wise.” — Proverbs 4:7-9, 30:24, 25.

We are all growing and entering new stages of life we once only hoped to enter. Graduation, marriage, business, parenting, grand parenting and great grand parenting. It's a time to take on a new identity and carry the torch. To sit among comrades who share your joy and experience.  To learn how to make the most of it. To gather wisdom, give wisdom and appreciate the good results of applied wisdom.  

Events and ceremonies help us put it all into perspective. When planning any event including weddings, graduation and reunions take the time to use that time to contemplate and plan the future and appreciate the accomplishments leading to entering the next stages of life and most of all to gather the wisdom needed to carry on. When the events have passed you realize just how much it  was needed for all involved.

SHOUT OUT!
Here's a shout out to our new family reunion planners in Main, Georgia and The East Coast. - Welcome aboard.

WE WROTE THE BOOK
Brenda and I wrote the book on family reunion planning. Makes a great keepsake to pass on to the next generation. Get your copy of the The Family Reunion Planner Guide and Keepsake at  http://family-reunion-planner.fimark.net and start creating memories, drinking up life and living in the moment.

GET FREE STUFF
Like this blog but haven't signed up? When you sign up you're entitled to discounts and freebies to make your event planning even more enjoyable. And who doesn't love getting freebies in the mail! Signup on from this page.

Happy Reunion Planning Everyone!