My family!

I've had a lovely day today. We went down this morning to Rob's parents as they had Rob's Nan and Aunty Jen and Uncle John down for the weekend. So we went down to join them and Jo, Rob's sister for a Sunday lunch at a pub and a nice afternoon at Val & John's.

One of the many brilliant things about marrying Rob is that I gained a wonderful extended family. I guess I'm just so lucky that Rob and I feel the same way about our families and have been brought up with the same values and beliefs. I was always brought up to look out for my family. From a very young age I remember my bro looking after me, no matter what arguments and quarrels we had amongst ourselves at any one time, if something outside of normal happened the first thing we did was to look out for each other to make sure we were still there and okay. And my bro always did that and my early memories of going to pop concerts as a teenager was my brother hanging onto my hand in a crush of bodies in front of a stage to make sure I didn't get lost or hurt. What a bind for him - a couple of years older to have to look after his little sis - but he always did it. It still stands though, one phone call from my bro and I'd be there to lend a hand.

Rob and I have spoken to each other at length about what our families mean to us and both of us would always choose to get together as a family gathering rather than go out to any other event. I have many friends who can't stand their parents or grand-parents or siblings and hardly speak from year to year. We have friends who have parents who are rude about their partners and won't spend time with them, or they have siblings who they argued with years ago and so don't speak to anymore. What is that all about?!

Are we just simply lucky to both have loving, fun, happy families? Because that's how it is - we really are so blessed. It's not like they don't have their own problems, they all have their lives with their ups and their downs, with worries about health, money, jobs, etc. But when we all get together it doesn't matter what other things are going on, we are a unit, a caring, sharing group of people. And it doesn't matter which side of the family it is, my side or Rob's side. We have the same values and we share our lives the same way. We are so extremely lucky.

I had a really lovely day today, we just met up at Rob's parents for a cup of tea before going to a local pub for a roast lunch. There were eight of us and we just chatted and laughed our way through lunch. Some of it was serious, much of it was joking and lots of it was story telling, repeating things from our shared history and anecdotes from family events of the past. And a whole load of it was taking the mickey out of each other. I've not laughed so much for ages and my stomach muscles ache this evening from laughing. How lucky are we? And the best thing of all is that before October last year, these people were Rob's family. And now? They're my family too.