dinner

a good friend of mine has a great tradition. every sunday night the whole fam damily(as my grandma used to say) gets together for dinner.

i started thinking about my own family and it's lack of togetherness. i lived within fifteen miles of siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles and sometimes we would go months without seeing each other. people were "busy", no one had any time to drop by and see each other so our lives went on solo with no intersection with those that should be closest to us.

i finally decided that it would happen no more. i got together with my mom and aunt and we decided to give family dinners a go. that was over a year ago and we are still going strong. but let me say that it hasn't always been easy. we try to rotate houses but my mom and i have done the majority of them. it's not always easy to feed 25 people every other week or to plan them in the beginning when it's still new and to keep them going when no one wants to host anymore but we have gotten through all of that and grown better for it.

i love the feeling of togetherness. we know what's going on on every one's lives. we laugh, we talk and sometimes we bicker but that is what family is about right? the good, the bad and the ugly. all for one and one for all. we have lost a few people in the process. roc moved back to oklahoma and how i miss having her there each week. jim, theresa and the kids are on their adventure so we don't get to see them like we want to but we know they will be home soon and back in the mix. we gained some too. uncle kelly used to not come at all and now he is one of the biggest supporters. looking back at all the years we were all so distant makes me sad but looking forward to all the years we will have from here on out makes me very, very happy!