Families happen!

Family Cable Crossing

I just love the way families "happen." Yes there is always the traditional family which happens when a husband and wife have biological children and this is good. It is the foundation of a society. What fascinates me more, though, is how people, that are not part of this traditional family structure, create their own families.

Many adopt children. Some of these children are close at hand, within the extended family; others come from half way around the world. Most children are adopted when they are young; however, sometimes a family friend is "adopted", taken in by an older "mother and father" perhaps and that person becomes the child that either they never had or the child that is not with them now and the "child" is the recipient of shelter, care and respect that might not otherwise be theirs.

Snowmen hats from Woodsmoke Woolworks

I love merged families - man with children, marries woman with children and they become a large family - the Brady Bunch is the classic. I also love the way the gay community has created families, today. Something that might not have happened as "easily" a generation ago.

I love organizations like "Big Brother" and "Big Sister" that reach out to children who may have a very limited family and enrich their lives with expanded family experiences.

I have often thought that there should be something similar for people of grandparents age - maybe "Adopt a Gran." There are a lot of very able-bodied seniors who would love to take a child fishing or knit for them or teach them to knit etc. Again this is extending the family experience or at least prolonging it.

I understand that some faiths (Seventh Day Adventists for one) require that you include a stranger at your table for Christmas dinner. Maybe this is the family experience for just a day - but an important day for many. Others just have a big dinner for anyone who hasn't a family close by and for awhile, they are "the family."

Fulled Mitts from Catherine Vardy

Dinner? Something that will feed the 5,000, if you are thinking of a lot of people. Soup works, as does spaghetti - Lasagna has become too expensive, I think. Any recipe with beans - chili works. I hope that your family experience is wonderful!!

The pictures are from patterns sized for the whole family!  Enjoy!