Impromptu Family Gathering

I come from a small"ish" family. My dad was an only child, raised by a single mother, who also never had any siblings. My mom is the youngest of 5, but her family lived/lives in Utah. So while we had lots of cousins there, we rarely saw them growing up. In fact, thanks to Facebook I have been able to develop some relationships with cousins that I didn't even know existed. As for my immediate family, I have two younger brothers Jared and Chad. We grew up in California close to one grandparent, my Grandma Peabody (who is my dad's mom). She meant everything to us. Besides her, that was all our extended family that we really were close to. At this time, my family has all moved away from here. I am the only one left from my immediate family in California.

Almost ten years ago I was introduced to the Mills family. Instantly I felt included in their "larger" family. By that I mean, not only David's immediate family, but aunts, uncles, cousins, and most of all Grandma. It didn't take me much time before feeling very invested in David's family. I loved having all these new relationships. I especially was excited for when we had children. What a blessing it has been to them. I always feel so fortunate that my kids not only have relationships with their grandparents, aunts, and uncles, but also great-gramma, great aunts, great uncles, second and third cousins etc...  It is very special.

I feel like it is pretty cool to be friends with your family. It is not always that way in a family, but at this time in our lives it is the case. Friday night Dave had to go to school to work on a group project. Me and the kids had Dave drop us off in Sacramento for the evening. First stop was at Aunt Teri's salon so the boys could get haircuts. Then we grabbed some dinner and headed to Gramma Jean's (David's grandma). We told some of our family we were coming down for the evening. Throughout the evening family kept coming over to hang out. First Jordan and his fiance Megan. Then Jeff and Karisee, next Peter, Janell, and Violet. After them, Jeff and Dorene. Lastly Dave got back from his project meeting. We were all full of conversation.We all squeezed into one room. The kids were playing. Aunt Teri and Parker were baking peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies. Violet and Emmi were sharing a basket of toys on the floor. Jordan, Jeff, and Josh played Go Fish. All of us were talking and laughing. I just wanted to freeze that evening. I was actually sitting there thinking, this is what I love. Even if it's an impromptu family gathering, we just have so much fun being together. We choose to make time for one another. It is what I look forward to. The Mills family has become the extended family I always dreamed of us a kid. I am overwhelmingly grateful for these moments and for living close to family.