How Big Is Your Family? | A Yearly Gathering To Strengthen The Bond :)

How well do you know the members of your clan?

Do you still know who are your 1st, 2nd, 3rd, nth degree cousins?

I do up to my 5th degree cousins. ;) Well, only in my mother's side because I didn't grow up with constant contact with my father after he left us.

Well, in my mother's side, the Lambating-Sabanal family, we have this yearly gathering that happens in between Christmas day and New Year's day. It usually lasts for 2-3 days.

On the first day, we're going to have the revelation of who our manitos/manitas are. Manitos/Manitos are the ones who are gonna receive the gifts we have prepared. During the program, a number of presentations are to be presented by each family. Some will sing, dance, act, and all combined.  It is a contest by the way. Our family will invite 2-3 family friends/neighbors that will judge the said contest. The family who will gather the greatest number of points wins. Well, there are 2nd, 3rd, 4th place and consolation prizes to be given so there are no losers. Well, the prizes? It came from the family members abroad and those who have high paying jobs.

We usually spend the second day for the games. We are grouped evenly into 4 groups. The young ones before, the young ones now, and the very young ones are evenly distributed to each of the group so we can have a fair play. The games are really interesting and tricky. There are games for adults, young adults and kids. There is a point system in every game-0, 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25. The group who'll gather the most number of points wins. And again, there are no losers because prizes is up to 4th place. Haha!

This year, we had our decoration contest  and was held on our family owned resort. It is also the place where our games are held. In the decoration contest, we were grouped according to age excluding the babies. So that's first, second, 3rd and 4th generation. Each group had been given an area to be decorated to. Unfortunately, our group has been assigned to decorate the 4 kiosks and the campground. It was really a tough task for us because of the bad weather caused by typhoon. We had  our decorations set up for a couple of times because some decorations are stripped off by the strong wind and rain so we need to go back to square one. It was really tough and tiring but we enjoyed it. And so, we got the second place because the sponsor decided to have 2 groups for the first place and 2 groups foe the second place. Not bad! haha! Who knows if the sponsor wasn't generous, we might be the fourth placer? haha!

We usually just spend the third day for the continuation of games if ever needed. And when done, we'll spend the rest of the day to  just hang out with the members of the family.

This yearly gathering was designed for us to know who our relatives are and to have a close bond with each other. Fortunately, we have attained that goal already. ;)

Now, our clan already have 88 living active members 7 from the first generation, 23 from the 2nd generation, 27 from the 3rd generation, 22 from the fourth generation and 9 from the 5th generation and 5 more to come this year!

That's how big our family is. That's only from my grandmother (mother's side). My grandfathers' family is even bigger! He has 14 siblings, 15 including him! :D That's only in mother's side! Haha!

How about you? How big is your family? :)