Threads of a Multi-Generational Family

There's lots of great things about being part of our big family.  But the Wife's favorite part is that there's a bunch of people!  Grandma, the Amazing FarmWife, had just left the arena of "mother of little children" when us older grandchildren were born.  Thus creating a multi-generational family setting for all of us to grow up in. The Wife was growing up with Aunts and Uncles, our Great-Grandmother was a presence in our daily lives.
It was always an adventure to go to Grandma's house...with her revolving door.  First one there got the beds!  As a younger child, I just prayed we'd be late, so I could sleep in the living room on the floor and listen to my mother and her siblings stay up late and laugh as they told stories!

 Three of the Wife's favorite movies are: Cheaper by the Dozen(1950 film), With Bells on their Toes(1952 film), and My Big Fat Greek Wedding(2002 film).
(The first two are books also, read the books!!! The movie, however, was good as well.)
The reason these were/are the Wife's favorites are because of the family situations, and close to real life!
When Frank Gilbreth, Sr. answers the question: are these all your children?  And he says, "Yes, they are, and it's NO PICNIC!" About him children are hooting and hollering...That's the Wife's life on a daily basis now...but I am sure the Amazing FarmWife had her own moments of chaos.
Films that mirror our own lives and give laughter to all the hard times we weren't laughing at; that's therapy.

Upcoming we have a wedding in the family...it's the first wedding in a long time. A family tradition is to compose a song to sing to the Bride and Groom, based on their favorite musical...a tradition that was started some twenty years ago.  The more family who comes to the wedding, the more singers there are.  Sometimes the crew has even had time for props and choreography.
We watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding with Uncle Photographer-he's all excited about another new family tradition: spitting on the bride.  All this time, we had no idea our family was so Greek!

The best parts of being in a large family are bunches and bunches of people!  In our family, that's bunches of laughter, bunches of love, and bunches of support in every and all situations.  All these threads, woven into a beautiful tapestry of Family.

A vacation to watch a parade

Dear Farmer took a vacation for Depot Days in Amboy, IL.  In years past Dear Farmer has gone to the fund-raising event and enjoyed the tractors and the cars...this year it rained.  The rain makes it a little harder to REALLY enjoy walking around and looking at parked tractors or cars.  But we did make it to the parade!  A parade to beat all other parades!!!  Mostly because we had family in the parade, but then there's also the candy.  We waved to our Great-Oldies driving the models named after the alphabet, and each child snatched (easily) a pound of candy each (which stayed at Fabulous Aunt and Uncle's house).  It was actually just a vacation away from the reality of life.  The one where Dear Farmer could watch someone else drive the tractor, see someone else's hard work, and sit back and eat all the cereal he wanted to...
Every so often we need those...a vacation to watch a parade...it refreshes us as we face reality once again.