Family Like This

This weekend has been full of family...way more full of family than I could have anticipated. I talked with a friend on Monday about the upcoming weekend and the traditions of the immediate family for Thanksgiving and in preparation for Christmas. I told her that as much as I loved my family, it was somewhat hard to be home. I find myself falling into old habits of childhood far too quickly...laundry on the floor, not making the bed... It doesn't take too many days, and I find myself longing for the regularity and routine of my own home. I love my family, but we're still trying to figure out the whole adult-child/parent relationship. It's gotten tons better, but it's something that we'll always work on. 

But with my grandma's passing this week, the entire extended weekend became an extended family filled weekend. Thanksgiving on Thursday, visitation on Friday followed by dinner out with cousins, funeral today that will be followed by a birthday party tonight, and then church and lunch tomorrow. Despite all the family time, today I don't find myself longing for the peace and quiet of my own home. In fact, I don't want to miss out on any family time. It took a while for me to warm up to the idea, but now, all I want to do is stick around. 

My grandparents spent so much time with their siblings that the value and importance of family was ingrained into successive generations' genetics. And I realized as I looked around at all of the family at the funeral today, that very few people today get to experience family the way I have. I know my great aunts and uncles. I know many of my second and third cousins. I know all of my cousins, where they are, their childrens' names... And although every family looks around at their extended family members and comment, "Well, that's a strange lot there," or "They've got their fair share of issues," well, so what. Family is family, is it not? As I ate lunch today with a whole room full of family, I couldn't help be smile as I realized how very lucky I was to know and love so very many of my family. I have taken their presence for granted for far too long. 

So, today, I made it a point to talk to all my dad's cousins, to the great aunts and uncles, to the random third cousins I have seen once a year or so for my whole life but never really knew all that well. I left the church with a pocket full of email addresses, phone numbers, and promises to friend them on Facebook. Because as we lose the rocks of the family, the trunks of our immense family trees, it becomes our responsibility, those of us way out on the farthest branches, to come together, to stay together, to learn about each other, and to make sure that we always love each other. Our ancestors would have wanted it that way.