Quality Friday: Family.

"Dear Tigger, Just a note to say; dress warmly, eat well. Stay safe and sound. Keep smiling. We're always there for you. Wishing you all the best. -Your family." The Tigger Movie

Promptly upon our return from Green Bay, WI, H was asking for "Pooh". So, The Tigger Movie went in and we sat and enjoyed moments of this movie I now seem to have memorized. The premise of the movie is that Tigger is sad that he's the only Tigger and wants to find his family. Pooh and friends dress as Tiggers and try to convince Tigger that they are his family, but Tigger is disappointed. He wants his real family, so searching he goes and he realizes, in the end, that those friends are his family. His real family.

Green Bay is my parents old stomping grounds. Both my parents, the oldest of six, grew up just two blocks apart. One on Jackson Street and one on VanBuren. Because my mom and dad had been an item since my mom was just 14, both families have always been quite intertwined from going to the same high school to large family events now.

There was a time where family functions and events were not very fun for me. I'd wish and hope for other plans to pull me away from the supposed 'forced family fun.' I am sure that this is normal and that every person goes through this time where everything BUT family is important. I remember many trips to WI where my parents would drive through their old neighborhoods pointing out landmarks, friends homes and memories, I couldn't refrain my yawns back then.

Perhaps it is the last few months we've had or perhaps it's just a coming of age, but I have come to a point where I am so thankful for my family. Not just my immediate family, but my extended family. My mom's sisters and brothers. My cousins. My dad's sisters. And while the circumstances weren't what I had hoped after just seeing my mom's family in December, I was happy to have their arms to hug again. Their voices, questions and laughter to fill the room. Happy that H. could run from person to person, arms to arms and receive love from everyone from his great uncles to his great aunts. (And don't forget 'boppa' (my dad) who we rode to WI with.)

My dad drove around his old neighborhood and past the home he grew up in and then my mom's childhood home, past the school they went to and the life they lived. Now I eat up this information. This history of my mom and my dad.

While we typically might not see all of our extended family more than once a year, they are where I've come from. They hold history and stories of life before me. They are a connection to my dad and to my mom. And there are days that I need that connection as much as I need oxygen to breath.

So to my family, my real family, I have this to say:

Dress warmly. (Believe me, it's ccccold...)
Eat well.
Stay Safe and Sound. (Making wise choices...)
Keep Smiling. (It's going to get better...)
I'm always there for you.
Wishing you all the best.
Love, me

My little sister A, cousin S and grinning H.

(Acting as though he is having the time of his life in the fanciest Starbucks I've ever seen.)

DePere, WI

(Can you believe this is the only photo I have from this week?)

Happy Quality Friday!