pre-family "reunion" chronicles

I'm sitting at my desk listening to Mary's talk radio buzzing in the background (I think I forgot to mention that in addition to her other nuances, she simultaneously listens to two different Christian talk radio stations on her computer and radio.) and thinking about my upcoming week. I'm excited that I've taken three Fridays in July so my work week will be short. This past Friday I ran errands and this Friday I'll be traveling home. My family reunion is exactly four days away. I'm both excited and anxious at the same time. Its kind of weird. I'm more excited about getting away from DC and being home for more than 36 hours.

In terms of the reunion, I want to see my Godmother/aunt, my paternal grandfather and Maw Maw and Paw Paw, but outside of that....I could really do without seeing the rest of those people. See....I don't even refer to them as my cousins or aunts and uncles...they're just "those people" to me. I've already made personal notes that I'm sure they're going to make a point to make negative comments about my weight, when I'm going to get married, why I'm not dating anyone etc. With that, I've made it a point to pack only my flyest clothes, shoes, blah blah blah. I figure, let them talk... I may as well be fly while the spotlight is on me. LOL. But real talk, I'm secretly excited about going because I'm sure it will give me plenty of shit to talk about since most of my family is ridiculous.

Its strange. I was talking to one of my homegirls and she expressed the same indifferent sentiments about her own family reunion. So here are a few questions we came up with...
Are family reunions necessary? Like do people really care what's going on with their distant relatives? If I don't talk to you on a regular, I really don't care to see you. I know. It sounds shady, but I really don't care. When you get married and have kids, are you supposed to go to your in laws family reunions, yours, etc?