Birthdays and Other Celebrations

Tonight we celebrate the two August birthdays of the family who live in the area - my stepniece and her husband. As with many families, the birthdays in my family tend to clump together. So we celebrate several birthdays at once. In this case, the two birthdays happen to be from the same immediate family - husband and wife - and happen to be about a week apart.

But getting together to celebrate the birthdays is almost incidental to getting together to celebrate being a family. Family is very important to my parents, and so we were raised to view family as very important. As is normally and hopefully the case, our family has grown with age. Though all of us kids are hardly kids - I'm the youngest at 46. My brother-in-law had a couple of kids that he brought to us when he joined our family - my stepniece and stepnephew. His mom also was a big believer in the value of family, and she became part of our family as well until she passed away a few years back. And so our family expanded that way. My brother got married several years ago too, and so we welcomed another member of the family - who herself views family as very important and is part of a big family herself. And the family expanded again. A couple of years ago, my stepniece got married, and we gained another family member. One of my cousins moved to the area, and then got married, and then his mom moved here too. And now my cousin and his wife are about to be parents. And so the family continues to grow.

This August birthday celebration is particularly important as a celebration of family. My sister-in-law lost her father about a week ago. It's always hard to lose a parent - I don't care how old you are or how much you may be expecting it. In this case, her father had been ill. But not so ill that he was expected to die quite so soon. And so it's been a shock. And so she needs the support of her family.

As readers of my blog might have seen, my father also recently had a health scare. And so we will celebrate his recovering as well. And the continued good health of both my parents.

So birthday celebrations are good, and all. But really it's the getting together that's the important part. Enjoying each other's company. Catching up on each other's lives. Letting each other know how important each of us is to the other.

That's the real celebration.