Family Reunion

My mother’s two brothers and their respective families and her sister and probably her boyfriend of the month are coming to town next week. This is big news because one brother lives in Ecuador with his wife and my two young cousins and one lives in Denmark with his wife and my other cousin. Her sister lives in California with two of my other cousins but we never see them. Every 2-4 years we have a "reunion". My mother’s parents both died when I was under a year old so it is an important reunion for my mom. They are an interesting cast of characters. Here is what we all have to look forward to:

1. My uber-liberal, atheist, Vietnam Veteran Denmark Uncle and my beyond right ringed Republican, Christian brother in law having multiple raucous debates where neither will change the other’s mind, but both are hell-bent on trying.
2. Loud, loud, loud. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but we live a fairly quiet existence. I’m not a big fan of noise. It’ll be a bit of a culture shock.
3. Lots of eating and probably lots of drinking.
4. We are all staying at a local resort, so there will be a ton of swimming involved.
5. My Ecuador Uncle married a woman my age and so they have two younger children, close in age to my children. My daughter is very excited to meet her "new cousins". The last time they were all here she was 2 weeks old.
6. Lots of conversations from my uncles about why America sucks and how all that ails our country would be solved if we just followed their respective countries forms of government, healthcare, education, etc.

Overall, it should be a lot of fun. They are fun and interesting people and both of my uncle's wives are very nice and balance their husband's well. We don’t come from a big family and the family we do have, most live out of the country, so it’ll be a nice experience for my children to be around extended family for a week.