Dysfunctional Family

I would like to give a shout out to all those who understand what it is like to have a dysfunctional family. I love my family, don't get me wrong, however I cling to the fact that we don't get to choose who our family is. Yesterday was the first year in about four years that my entire family got together to celebrate a holiday. You see in past years bringing everyone together at the holidays resulted in multiple outbreaks of fights. So, when I heard that we were reattempting this gathering this Thanksgiving I was a little skeptical.

Overall it wasn't horrible. Pretty much everyone has the same personalities as they did some years ago. One thing is that all the grand kids have grown older and therefore its now like a gathering of adults. Its kind of weird to see two of your cousins and know that they have gotten married since the last times you seen them. Another cousin brought his girlfriend, soon to be wife. I am okay because they are older than I but if any of the younger ones start getting married before I, I might have a problem. Haha.

It is still interesting to see how everyone interacts. We each got our plates and sat in different parts of the house with our immediate family, weird right? Well, there wasn't a table big enough for everyone but it still shows how not everyone gets along well enough to even eat all together. Well, it is what it is. I didn't create these broken relationships, but hey at least everyone is trying. I think more and more the family is trying because my grandparents are getting older and we are starting to realize they won't be around forever. It hit me yesterday that my grandma will be 70 in this coming up year. We looked at some pictures from when they were younger and it made think, wow I am starting to get older. My mom talked of how my grandpa used to hold and feed me when I was a baby. Crazy how the years pass us by.

One thing that I was really grateful for was my aunt Lydia. Technically shes my aunt, however shes only 18. My grandparents adopted her which made her their daughter and therefore my aunt. Really shes more like a cousin to me however she doesn't live down calling me her nephew. Haha. In past years we have not gotten along at all but now she has matured so much and we actually get along much better. We spent a lot of time talking yesterday and that really was the highlight of my time with the family. I actually felt like Lydia and I were finally family and she was sharing with me what is going on in her life.

So, with all that said, as dysfunctional as my family is I still love them and I am thankful to have them. I do pray that if I do have a family one day that the dysfunction will be able to slowly change and a break through in family dynamics will change. I was scared to go into Thanksgiving yesterday, but I survived and it was good to see family as awkward as it was.