Thankful, Part Deux

Family! Most people have it, some people love it, some people hate it, a lot are in between. I feel particularly blessed for the fact that I have a wonderful nuclear family I grew up with (aka my parents, as I'm an only child - fun fact alert!), a wonderful extended family on both my mom's and dad's sides, though many of them live far away, a wonderful nuclear family-in-law (hubby's parents and brother), AND an extended family-in-law - one in which I've known most of the members since I was 16-17 years old or so, since many of them live in our home state or visited back then. I know I used the word "wonderful" way too many times just now, but I really want to emphasize how grateful I feel. (I suppose it was also a run-on sentence. Oh well.)

Hubby's parents have been wonderful to me since I became his girlfriend when we were in high school, and I have a great relationship with his brother too. The fact that there was so little family drama related to the wedding also was such a blessing - and now that we have had to figure out how to split up our Christmas vacation back home between the two families, we appreciate their understanding there too. We might even have a Christmas dinner that includes everyone - my parents, his parents and bro, and his extended family who will be around. I know that not every married couple is blessed with such family harmony, so I definitely try to be mindful of my good fortune.

In addition to the general love, acceptance, and understanding of our families, we have so many wonderful examples of marriage - my paternal grandparents (married I believe for around 40 years before my grandfather's death in 1991), my maternal grandparents (married for 48 years this year), hubby's grandparents (married 51 years this year), my parents (married 26 years this year) and his parents (married 25 years this year). Many a time I have been heartened knowing how many examples we have close to us - I really hope it's contagious, and I know that some studies have shown it often is. Feeling the support of all those couples in this, the year of our wedding, has been wonderful too.

I'm really looking forward to going to home (our old home at least) next month to spend time with everyone in our family. I treasure that time that we get, and I am grateful for all their love toward us in the past and especially as we have begun our marriage.

One of my favorite photos of hubby with his mom, dad, and brother.

And me with my parents!