EN famille vs AVEC famille vs AVEC VOTRE famille.

Question

Did some reading and it seems that if you are talking about 'YOUR own family' you use  EN FAMILLE.. if the activity excluded anyone BUT family. If you are talking about someone else's family or using a possessive pronoun (he ate with HIS family=AVEC sa famille/he ate with  the Jones family = avec la famille Jones/I ate with (my)  family= j'ai mange en famille. If this is correct why then did Monsieur Dulac not say "Alors, je vous souhaite un bon weekend avec ta famille". Is it because this interpretation is "a good family weekend"; a compound noun with EN;  rather than "a good weekend with family". Or is my reading /premise wrong?

Accepted Answer

Bonjour Jameson,
To stay consistent with the use of possessive pronoun, "votre" would be better here instead of "ta" as the indirect object pronoun "vous" is already present in the sentence (je vous souhaite...). 
However, "je vous souhaite un bon weekend avec votre famille" sounds very strange to a French native as the usual expression is simply "un weekend en famille". The indirect object pronoun "vous" is already present, therefore you don't need to repeat "whose" family it is and therefore use the expression "avec + [possessive pronoun] + famille". All in all, "a family weekend" is best translated by "un weekend en famille".
I hope this is helpful.
Bonne journée !

Answer

un week-end en famille -- a family weekendUsing avec instead of en as preposition sounds strange. Like it isn't one whole family and you wouldn't belong to the family.

Answer

Thanks Chris and Celine. My error of course re vous/ta. "However, "je vous souhaite un bon weekend avec votre famille" sounds very strange to a French native as the usual expression is simply "un weekend en famille" is an excellent explanation for it supports the context of the conversation.