This past week my sister and her family came in from Florida. We hadn’t seen them in person in a couple of years, so it was great to spend a little over a week with them.
That said, I’m a little worn out from the visit. Since we don’t get to see them often, we wanted to spend as much time with them as possible. That meant we had 16 people (sometimes more) hanging out together, all day, every day.
And most of that time was spent talking about food:
What are we going to do for breakfast? For lunch? For dinner? When are we gonna eat? Where are we gonna eat? Who’s gonna cook? Should we have pizza? Chicken salads? Hamburgers and hot dogs? What do we want on the pizza? Where should we get the pizza from? Who wants fried chicken? Who wants grilled chicken? Should we just go to a restaurant? What restaurant? Who’s gonna ride with whom to the restaurant?
And when we weren’t discussing food, we were debating what to do that day:
Should we spend the day at the pool? Should we go mini-golfing? Who wants to go to Pittsburgh? Anyone want to go for a hike? How about we just hang out and play games? What if we just stayed home and watched a movie? What movie should we watch? Should we just go to the movies instead?
Then it would inevitably turn to where people were going to sleep that night. My sister’s kids and my kids always wanted to stay together, so we were constantly driving them back and forth between my house and my mother’s, dragging pillows and blankets and cots and favorite stuffed animals and whatever else they needed to get through the night. Then we’d repeat this process the next day, and the next…
They were here for ten days and I hardly remember a thing about it. The entire visit was a blur. A wonderful yet exhausting blur, that is.
Now that they’re gone, it seems eerily quiet around here. We miss them dearly, of course, but it is nice to make decisions for four instead of 16. We probably won’t see them again for a few years, but I’m going to start planning the meals now.
Not that it will make any difference.
Family gatherings like this are the best, as tiring and chaotic they might seem sometimes. Cherish them!! Your kids will remember them forever! I’ll bet Cheryl and Val were in their glory! ❤️