We Celebrate Our Family Time

Hello friends!

I hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving this past week (if you celebrate Thanksgiving)!  I know I did.  Luckily, I was able to go home for Thanksgiving and spend some much needed time with my family.  I counted and it had been seven months since I had been home.  Seven months!  Let me tell you, the people at home really change when seven months go by, especially when those family members are children and teenagers.  I have two nieces, one that is 17 and one that is 9, as well as a nephew who is 16.  Wow, just, wow.  WHEN DID THEY GET SO OLD????  My nephew has facial hair! FACIAL HAIR!

Regardless of all the changes that happened while I was gone, it was great to see my family and friends again. My family has been through alot this past year so it was great to see them all together, in one piece, and laughing again.  There was, of course, a great deal of food as well.  One of my friends came home with me and by the end of our time in Ohio, we were both SICK of food.  Not only did we have Thanksgiving at my house on Thursday, but we also had Thanksgiving with my fiance's family on Friday during the afternoon as well as dinner at a Mexican place with one of my best friends from high school.  I think we waddled out of the restaurant.  Needless to say, it was a food filled week, as I'm sure it was for most of you as well.

I would like to turn this blog to a slightly more happy topic, at least, happy for me.  My family is amazing.  Yes, just like all families, it's not perfect and there are plenty of issues that we have to deal with all the time.  But when push comes to shove, my family has always been able to come together support each other.  I never noticed how extremely lucky I am to have such a great family like that until I started meeting people whose families were not quite so supportive of each other.  I now know that not all parents are supportive of their children or involved in their lives.  I know that there are families that are torn apart and take a very long time to heal, if they ever do.  I have also learned that those who are vulnerable in these situations such as the children, teens, or young adults, tend to find a family in their friends.  If they can, these people often surround themselves with supportive friends who become like their family.  This is the family they find support, love, and acceptance in.  Even though this family does not share blood, it is still a legitimate form of family.  I have to say that I've been greatly honored in my life and have joined such families with some of my friends.

I feel extremely spoiled because I definitely have both.  I have a wonderful blood family and an equally wonderful extended family of friends.  This past week, I learned the value of both of those families.  I came away from my vacation feeling grounded, reassured, and able to take on the world.  For some reason, I thought that as a grew older, I would rely on my parents and family less, but let me tell you, the opposite is true.  As I continue to learn how to adult in this scary world of expectations, responsibilities, adventures, happinesses, political turmoil, and the like, I find myself looking more and more to my family for support and love.  Adulting doesn't mean that you grow out of your family, it means that you grow into a new place in it.  I'm not exactly sure what my new place is.  I've possibly moved from minion to head gopher.  You know, when your mom or dad tells you, "Go fer this, go fer that." You're the gopher.

I hope that all of you are able to go to your family, be it your blood related family or your friend family, and find the support, love, and acceptance that you need.  I hope that those people who feel they have neither will be able to reach out to those closest to them and find that family that we all need.  In a world that is becoming more and more individualistic, I hope we don't lose sight of what's important: your relationships with other people.  I challenge both you and myself to keep reaching out and talking to those around you.  Foster those relationships as much as you can because the older I get (not that I'm old but you get what I mean) the more I realize that it's those relationships and connections that give meaning to my life.

Today, I leave you with this song from the elementary concert:

"Turkey and dressing's on the table,
Sweet pumpkin pie is mighty fine.
Brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles,
We celebrate our family time.
Hands and hearts, hearts and hands,
join to stretch across the land."

See you next week!

- Jamie