It’s all about family!

My wife and I accompanied our son and his family of five to Cincinnati last weekend to celebrate his milestone birthday (too hard to find an evening at home to do it, everyone had soccer and hockey practices!) and to attend some youth sports contests that our youngest granddaughter and younger grandson would be involved in.

As I looked around the table at dinner Friday night (at a great rib place that is renowned in Cincinnati dining circles) I could not help but be delighted, as always, to be with a large portion of our nuclear family (our kids and their families, simply put).  Everyone was smiling and happy that we were together for a nice meal and a wonderful occasion.

My grandson beat me to a trick I pull on him regularly, offering me a French fry for “quality control purposes” before I could ask.  The younger granddaughter present was beaming because she was sitting between our son and my wife, two of her favorite people in all of the world.  She tolerates me most of the time but occasionally does something really funny or incredibly sweet for me and makes up for it.

Their older daughter was sitting right across from me, and as I have mentioned, she is my music student and fellow devotee of certain singers and bands.  She’s growing up way too fast, now a junior in high school.

On Sunday morning she joined me at her brother’s hockey game and things ended up that she and her brother rode back to Lexington with us so that they could dig in on some school work to get a head start on the following week.

The only element missing from such a nice weekend was our daughter and her family (hubby plus a girl and boy).  Then that evening we learned that they’re coming in for a visit in October, so we’ll all be together that week.

I don’t think I truly appreciated how special it is to spend time with one’s family until our kids started having their own children.

I get it now, and want it as much as I can have it!

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