We had a wonderful Easter spending time with family. I reflected on this and thought about it the whole four and a half hour drive home. I thought about family and the interesting twist the meaning of the word is in our family.
The dictionary defines family as a noun, a basic social unit consisting of parents and their children, considered as a group, whether dwelling together or not. Then, you have the subsequent definition of any group of persons closely related by blood, as parents, children, uncles, aunts, and cousins. That's not exactly what I think of when I think of family.
See, for Easter dinner my three siblings, and their immediate families were there. We also have my parent's neighbor Carol over. She's practically another grandparent to my kids and another mother to me. There were also the Palmers, who were in the ward my family attended and who help my parents at the family history library. Brother Roquita came, his wife and daughter were ill or they would have been there also. Then we have our friends the Betzers. They've been friends of our family for a while and they were there with their two little ones. Now, this was actually a small group to my parents for Sunday dinner. Usually, we also have other friends of our family, Gwen, who we've known for years, and Mary, another long time friend of my mom. We also have my brother's in-laws who come over almost every week too. My family has since moved, so we aren't able to enjoy the weekly "family" dinner, but it is still a tradition and a huge cornerstone in the lives of my children. Every member of our Sunday meal group is who they consider to be family.
The funny thing is this isn't all for our family either. We still have the family who live away from us, and then there's the ward family we moved from. There are several people we left behind when we moved that we "have" to see each visit. They're family. We have woven ourselves into each others lives and by so doing, they have become a part of what we call, family.
I've tried to come up with a good definition for family. No matter how I try I can't put it into words. Maybe it's because the feelings and emotions I have for these people I know and love and hold so dear to my heart I'm not sure there's a way to express how I feel about them. Maybe it's because the English language doesn't hold a definition for what I consider to be family in my life. Even though I can't find a simple definition for such a word, I am so grateful for those I am able to consider family. For all they have done for us and for the many contributions they have made to our lives. I love you all.
