Agree with Scummy and Issymum. My version of 'family' isn't the same as the saccharine construct on the backs of cereal packets (which I agree is nauseating).
I grew up in a massive extended family (yep, Catholics, breed like rabbits, doncha know). We have huge international family get-togethers every so often, usually for weddings, or somebody's 80th or whatever, and 'immediate family only' ends up being 60 people before you've even blinked. We also do a big summer holiday each year with the younger generations, involving me, my sisters and several of my cousins, with somewhere northwards of 13 children between us.
A good few of my relatives are deeply mad, some in a nice way, some less so. Some are delightful most of the time, some nice only in small doses. But there's something rather lovely about having all these people who are related to you, with whom you have a bond that goes beyond the obligations of friendship, who will do things for you just because your grandmother is their aunt or whatever. I know the children feel there is something special about cousins, about the fact that they belong together even though they lead very different lives. They also learn something about getting on with people who they wouldn't necessarily have met or gravitated towards if they weren't related.
That doesn't mean that we feel the stultifying obligations that sometimes come across in 'how opressive families are'-type articles. Yes, I do grimace when my elderly aunts phone me up to get a detailed update of dd2's potty-training progress, or to give me their lengthy views on the new Pope while I'm trying to cook supper. But I try to humour them, because they're old, the contact means a lot to them, because they put up with me when I was small and irritating, and they care about us. And yes, I heave a deep sigh when yet another aunt asks me to have a teenage second cousin to stay for two weeks so that he can practise his English, but I do it anyway. And I know one day someone will do it for my children when they want to learn another language (Polish GCSE, anyone?).
In the end it's about ties, and belonging, knowing that you have a place in the world that isn't just about how much you can make other people like you. Love, I suppose. Anyway, what's the alternative? Dh doesn't really 'get' family, has two first cousins who he couldn't pick out in a line-up. His brother has two children, my children's first cousins, one of whom they have never even met, because family is not considered a priority, and nobody has made the effort. How sad is that?