Holidays

Holidays are great. Great if you have a big rambuctious family. Great if you have a great time and get together with your many friends and family. But what if you have some family who doesnt want to get together with family? I always pictured me with my kids and there many cousins and uncles and aunts all under one roof for holidays like Thanksgiving. But not this year. My daughter came up to me the other day and asked if she would see her cousins on thanksgiving. I wasnt willing to lie to her. I said "no hunny you wont" she asked why.. " because there parents arent talking to anyone" i said to her. She left it alone. But all day while I watched her interact with her grandparents and her sister I could see the confusion in her little blue eyes. Her cousins have always been a part of the family get togethers that we have. This broke my heart as much as hers. These are my nephews and niece that i dont get to see nearly enough. But to not see them on this very important day in our family was heartbreaking to say the least. I cried internally all the way home last night. with a few tears shed on my face in the darkness. It will probably be the same way at christmas. I always pictured my kids having a ton of cousins and our family would grow every year. But this year it grew but not in the way id like. It grew apart. My husbands family isnt close. To me that is unimaginable. I dont get how familys dont talk to eachother on a regular basis. It kills me to not talk to my brother. But its what he wants. I remember thanksgivings almost always being at our house. gramma would come and all 5 of her sisters at one time came. It was CRAZY! but i wouldnt have it any other way. Next year Im determined to host thanksgiving dinner. DETERMINED! Everyone we know will be invited. If they can or want to make it they are more than welcome. We will eat till our pants are to tight and we will play games and laugh till we hurt. It will be CRAZY. we will probably have mishaps with the turkey, or pies... or anything else that could possibly go wrong will. Because thats how I remember thanksgivings at our home. I have so many memories of when gramma would come to stay on thanksgiving. Or even when she didnt. One year my mom made pies. LOTS of pies... We had a shed and she put them out there over night because well here in Nebraska its like a freezer around thanksgiving time. Well there were also mice in that shed that we didnt know about... They had an awesome thanksgiving dinner. or should i say desert? Then another year my gramma and all of her sisters came up at once. They are women from arkansas. Big arkansas women who LOVE to cook. during the cooking in our extremely tiny kitchen a pipe under the sink got knocked loose. Water was gushing into the basement from the kitchen sink that was running nonstop. Then the toilet... who doesnt have a toilet story? well we had one on the basement bathroom.. non working... one of the aunts went to the bathroom on that pot... off the hole... yea that was funny.... GREAT memories. I want my kids to have great memories of there familys getting together once a year. twice is great but once is perfect. I hope that we get to create great memories for my kids.