I love my family.

 

This weekend is the big, long-anticipated, “Back to School” sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa’s/ Aunt Donna and Uncle Ray’s house.  Some of the kids have gotten too old for such nonsense.  But we will have 6 or 7 little monsters running around eating pizza, playing Net Box 360, doing crafts and trying to “stay alive” performing Simon Sez routines.  Somewhere along about 2:00am the last eye will finally close.  And, by 5:30am….the first one will awake and encourage all of the others do so.  Then comes decorating doughnuts with icing and sprinkles.  At 9:00am we will all line up and head out doors for the much-loved nature walk where we hope to see evidence of deer (they leave poo on the path); all sorts of leaves and plants; fish and turtles  in the lake; and with a bit of luck, we may even spot a red bird.  Finally, when they are gone, Donna and I will spend the rest of the day cleaning up and promising ourselves never to do that again (the same promise we made after the last sleepover and the one before that).  

 

When I was a child growing up, ours was never a close family.  Seldom did I see cousins, aunts or uncles.  Grandparents lived on opposite ends of the country, so we saw them only now and then.

 

When my wife and I married, we decided that we wanted to be facilitators of family gatherings.  It has happened.  Besides sleepovers, we have partied  and celebrated a lot of holidays together (I believe it was about 32 for Thanksgiving).  We had 6 trees last Christmas so everyone could have the type they like best.  We have vacationed together   using walkie- talkies to communicate while driving the back roads of Tuscany and had a great family feud that lasted the whole time we were at Folly Beach, NC.  We have worked together on the American Cancer Society’s   Relay for Life (team name:  All in the Family).  We have done picnics.  We had our own Iron Chef completion (secret ingredient:  whole coconuts).  Thrown Mardi Gras parties and even staged a “Greatest Race” throughout  central Florida. 

 

One day, in the not-so-distant future, I suspect that I will be an old, old man wondering where all the years went?  I will have my memories, though, of all the good times watching people I love having fun one with another.  And I will be content to know that all the cousins, nephews and nieces (the in-laws and the out-laws !) are still hanging out together making new memories.  If I’m lucky, maybe once in a while a grandchild (great grandchild?), a nephew or a niece will stop by and talk about all the good times that they had growing up as part of a big, loving family.  Eventually, from high on my perch in Heaven, I’ll have the pleasure and sheer joy of watching the cycle play itself out over many, many generations.  My family is one great gift and blessing from God and I give thanks for every member.

 

 

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