Family.
My husband explained to our 19-month-old at the beginning of our trip to my family get-together, "H...just remember, you can pick your friends, you can pick your nose. You can't pick your relatives."
We laughed. We were only joking. Sort of.
I love them. They have the same ancestral blood coursing through their insides, the same genes squaredancing in their chromosomal makeup. But gosh, I have nearly nothing in common with them other than that. We see each other maybe once every year or two. Some cousins I haven't seen for nearly a decade. I spent much of the weekend doing the thing that I despised others doing to me not too many years ago: "Wow, so-and-so, last time I saw you, you were only this (pronouced theeeeiiisssss) big!"
I think that's one reason why people get married. So they can inherit a whole new bunch of relatives who didn't know them when they were only theeeeiiisss big and with whom it's OK to not share anything in common...no one has to feel any bit of guilt about it. My husband is a good sport. He puts in his appearance. He chats when necessary. And he picked up the gentle art of "hug avoidance" by using our son as a shield. Big baby in your hands? Gosh, gee, golly, no arms free to hug the endless stream of strangers who know all about you solely from what has been told to them by your inlaws. My family hugs with greetings, goodbyes, and sometimes for no apparent reason at all. Gives family newbies the creepies if they're not used to such displays of emotion and invasions of personal space. (Conversely, I feel quite weird arriving at my husband's family functions with only a hello and leaving again with a simple wave and see ya. Where's the love, people?!)
It was great to see people and help my aunt and uncle celebrate 50 years of marriage. Fifty. Wow. There's an inspiration. Fifty years instead of the more common statistic - 50 percent of marriages ending in divorce. They must be doing something right. Hopefully, whatever luck and magic and blessings that have surrounded them might rub off on others through all those confounded embraces!
Here's to family. Three cheers for kin. And thanks for giving us something to talk about on the trip back home.
*grinnin'*
My husband explained to our 19-month-old at the beginning of our trip to my family get-together, "H...just remember, you can pick your friends, you can pick your nose. You can't pick your relatives."
We laughed. We were only joking. Sort of.
I love them. They have the same ancestral blood coursing through their insides, the same genes squaredancing in their chromosomal makeup. But gosh, I have nearly nothing in common with them other than that. We see each other maybe once every year or two. Some cousins I haven't seen for nearly a decade. I spent much of the weekend doing the thing that I despised others doing to me not too many years ago: "Wow, so-and-so, last time I saw you, you were only this (pronouced theeeeiiisssss) big!"
I think that's one reason why people get married. So they can inherit a whole new bunch of relatives who didn't know them when they were only theeeeiiisss big and with whom it's OK to not share anything in common...no one has to feel any bit of guilt about it. My husband is a good sport. He puts in his appearance. He chats when necessary. And he picked up the gentle art of "hug avoidance" by using our son as a shield. Big baby in your hands? Gosh, gee, golly, no arms free to hug the endless stream of strangers who know all about you solely from what has been told to them by your inlaws. My family hugs with greetings, goodbyes, and sometimes for no apparent reason at all. Gives family newbies the creepies if they're not used to such displays of emotion and invasions of personal space. (Conversely, I feel quite weird arriving at my husband's family functions with only a hello and leaving again with a simple wave and see ya. Where's the love, people?!)
It was great to see people and help my aunt and uncle celebrate 50 years of marriage. Fifty. Wow. There's an inspiration. Fifty years instead of the more common statistic - 50 percent of marriages ending in divorce. They must be doing something right. Hopefully, whatever luck and magic and blessings that have surrounded them might rub off on others through all those confounded embraces!
Here's to family. Three cheers for kin. And thanks for giving us something to talk about on the trip back home.
*grinnin'*
If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance.
—George Bernard Shaw
Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city.
—George Burns
Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family:
Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one.
—Jane Howard
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