Family comes in all shapes and sizes

I would bet that you already know this for a fact.  Friends and family come in all shapes and sizes!

I feel like we have made an effort to spend more time with friends and family this year. (of course, as I am re-reading this, I'm thinking to myself - no, we didn't!!  That was the plan!!  It is ridiculously hard to schedule time though.  I thought that when we hit "middle age" we would have lots of leisure time but seems like we are busier than ever!!)

So just who are these friends and family members?

Nathan and the girls (Miriam, Lydia and Charis are all young adult women but I think we are all girls somehow) hosted the Harris family Christmas gathering this year.  We always get together on Christmas Day Night.  Mark and Nathan were busy putting "cake gravy" all over their desserts and we were busy texting pictures of said "cake gravy" to our nephew, Thomas in Delaware trying to make him jealous (Thomas is a freshman in college at University of Alabama but was in Delaware for the holidays).  Cake gravy is not really gravy at all but it is basically the boiled custard used for homemade ice cream . . .not frozen . . .but big hunks of vanilla ice cream (from the store) dropped into the punch bowl with the custard.  I know it sounds weird but believe me - it is good.  I just looked back to last year to see if I had blogged about cake gravy but we were in the midst of some hard times in January and February of last year.  Mark and Thomas decided last Christmas that they were going to make it, bottle it (or can it) and sell it.  I thought they were quite silly about it last year but the Smith girls (Miriam, Lydia and Charis) told us this year that they laughed so hard about cake gravy . . .and that conversation gave them something funny to talk about during the midst of a difficult time.  We miss Nancy.  Plain and simple.  We miss her so much so I know that Nathan and the girls and her momma and her siblings miss her even more.  I was so proud of all of them for hosting this year.

Nathan was pouring cake gravy all over his dessert plate.  I think he is the first one a few years ago to put the custard (cake gravy) on top of his cake (I believe it was coconut cake that year!). . .and Mark quickly followed suit.

Family not only comes in all shapes and sizes but also all ages.  Not many families can brag that they have two such beautiful matriarchs.  Mark's momma - Susie - is on the left (just fyi - I think I've said this on here before - I have never called her Susie in my life.  I call her either Mark's momma or grandmother.)  Aunt Mary is on the right.  Many people think they are sisters but they are sister-in-laws.  Aunt Mary was married to Uncle Billy - Billy and Susie were siblings (along with Uncle John and Aunt Margaret).  Grandmother (Susie) has outlived all her siblings.  I know that was boring to anyone who was reading.  Sorry!!

Bill and George are in the dessert line.  I actually had to scroll back up and look at Mark's shirt to make sure this was George.  Sometimes it is a little freaky being married to an identical twin!!

There were several children at the family gathering this year.  They are/were all so cute. . . .and so very busy!!  Constant motion!  David's little boy had a long talk with Laura about Christmas nakins (yes, I meant to spell it that way - say napkin without the "p" - that is how he pronounced it.)  Laura used his nakin for some reason or another and replaced it with a paper towel.  He promptly informed her that she had not handed him a nakin but a paper towel . . .and it certainly wasn't a Christmas nakin.  He NEEDED a Christmas nakin.

Friends and family also come in all sorts of genders.  Who knows what these men were discussing . . .football, perhaps?

so family does come in all shapes and sizes, ages, stages, gender.  I went back and pulled this picture of Phella and Nancy and me at Nancy's last birthday party.  Phella is not "related" to us at all but I feel like she is my sister.  Family comes by blood (like the picture of my sisters, stepmother and me down below) and family comes by marriage (like Nancy and George and Bill and the girls) and family comes by choice (Phella).

This Christmas, time with family was good.