It may be December, and while I realize most everyone has moved on to sparkles, lights, and the joy of the season, I have a gratitude post from November that warrants a place on our blog.

As G alluded to last week, we have been busy traveling and spending time with our people, and by people, I mean our family.  You might be thinking to yourself that this feels a little like de ja vu, and you have read about our travels to see the kids and so forth, but this particular travel piece is different.

The weekend before Thanksgiving, we hosted a baby shower for my oldest daughter, Alex. The sisters, aunts, cousins, grandmothers, and friends converged over 4 days at an Airbnb in the hills of North Carolina.  We rented a house that slept 16 people to accommodate all of us in one place.  Nobody traveled less than 3 hours for this baby shower/slumber party aside from her local friends.  Most people traveled for more than 7 hours to be there.  Crazy, right?

The shower itself was beautiful.  It was everything we had hoped for her, and she received so many gifts, ranging from the practical to the sentimental.  I believe it’s safe to say that baby girl will have everything she needs and more.

This isn’t about the shower, though; it’s about all the things that happened before the main event.  

Let me begin with my daughters.  They didn’t just decide to host a shower; they inquired about her likes/dislikes and wishes.  They made spreadsheets, vision boards, and the invitation. They sent me lists, shopped, and even found the Airbnb. They thought of every detail, and even though they both had the worst travel days getting to the destination, they smiled and blew off the inconvenience because they were just grateful to be there. Watching them make this vision a reality for Alex makes me smile to this day.  Nothing warms a mother’s heart more than watching her adult kids do for one another, unless it’s watching her entire family do the same.

We have hosted two bridal showers, two weddings, and now a baby shower, and every time, our family has shown up in big ways. To be clear, I don’t just mean their presence.  I mean, they arrive like no time has passed, and we gather for weekly dinners rather than a year has passed since we’ve seen one another. I don’t know what it was about this particular trip that made me stop and really appreciate what was happening.  Maybe it was that it was a holiday weekend, and everyone had a lot going on.  It would have been easy and understandable for any one of them to say they couldn’t make it, but they didn’t.  Instead, they showed up, and every single one of them participated in making not only the day special, but the entire weekend. 

They cooked, decorated, made balloon arches, iced cookies, created flower arrangements, and charcuterie boards. They washed and dried dishes, and when the party was over,  they dismantled it all and loaded everything back into the cars for their return trips.

In the middle, though, is where the magic happened.  The staggered arrivals, the many trips to the airport and the grocery store, the sons-in-law, and Andy spending the weekend together and with us, the giant bear purchased while picking up ice, the sharing of rooms, the many bottles of wine, stories told at the large dining table, and laughing until we cried by the fire. This is where new memories were made to be shared when we are all together again. 

Gratitude doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of how I feel about this family of ours.  It’s not easy to show up when an event is hundreds of miles away.  It’s not easy to seamlessly slip back into family mode when you haven’t seen one another in over a year.  It’s not easy to blend two families like we have managed to do for almost 50 years and still show up as our best selves and celebrate together, but this group continues to do it, and I am forever grateful.

Thank you for being there when it matters most.  I am deeply grateful for each of you.