In a time that many people talk about how life is falling apart and that we are all becoming focused only on ourselves I am reminded that when you are really down you can always count on your family.  I was involved in a really bad car accident that left me in the hospital for over a month.  I had a husband and little kids at home, and a new career starting.  I don’t want to sound self centered, but I was the one that managed the whole crew.  From my hospital bed I laid and cried with worry about how they would get by.  To my great surprise and joy, my whole family, mom, dad, brothers, aunt’s uncles and more all pitched in.  Someone was always with me and someone was always at the house to help out.  I know I can never repay the kindness and generosity they showed me, but I do have a much deeper appreciation for my family than ever before.

I can remember it as if it were yesterday.  Growing up in Kansas, a big body of water was a lake that you could barely see the other shoreline of.  When mom and dad told us kids we were going to Florida for a vacation we really didn’t know what to think.  I was the oldest at 11 and had seen pictures of the ocean and the giant ships, but never gave it much thought.  It was also our first time to fly so that added even more excitement to the trip.  We arrived at Daytona Beach in the early afternoon and drove to our hotel that was right on the beach.  From the moment we saw it we had to get down there.  I don’t think we did much else that week, but it was the best vacation ever.

I have to admit; I never expected to even have a Facebook account much less become a closet addict of the games that they offer.  It all started innocently enough when my brother talked me into starting an account just to let friends and family know what was going on and to check up on them if I wanted to.  It only took a few days and I started getting requests to join in on this game or that one.  At first I ignored it, but then a farming game sounded interesting.  All I can say is now I try to sneak in at least an hour a day on my gaming habit.  Do you think there’s a support group for this?

For as long as I can remember I my family made a sort of unofficial tradition out of having a big pot of chili when the weather started to turn cold.  Now that I have a family of my own we are carrying on that tradition.  I don’t claim to have the world’s greatest recipe, in fact I often find myself experimenting with different things to add to our chili just to see how it turns out.  The one thing that is for certain is that everyone digs right in and even the kids usually want more the first time we have chili each year.  I hope they pass that tradition on to their families when they get older.

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