Family

Yesterday was a long, wonderful day. We were blessed with a quiet pager during the festivities (although my hubby has been working for 15 hours already today to make up for it!)

My parents, my husband's parents, our two living grandmothers, my sister and her family and our cousin, Scott, were all in attendance. We missed my sister-in-law and her family in Maine, but were otherwise an almost-complete combined family.


What a blessing it is for my children to have two great-grandmothers and two sets of healthy grandparents involved in their lives! I sometimes take for granted what a difference roots, history, stability and relationships can make in a young child's feeling of security.

After dinner, P brought his keyboard into the dining room and serenaded the grands and greats. Who could ask for a more attentive audience? He sang two songs, then we all joined in with Happy Birthday for my Dad whose big day is Monday.


This combined family event was a picture of the tapestry-like nature that is, in fact, family. Seventeen lives were seated around those tables who were intersected by love, commitment, blood and shared history.

I looked at our grandmothers and had the fleeting thought...all these lives, because they each fell in love, married and procreated. I think that's the part you don't get as newlyweds...the history, the real lives, that will result from your union. Isn't it incredible?

And as for feeling like I had become a full-fledged Mama by hosting a large family gathering...somehow I still managed to wind up at the kiddie table! :-)