Accepting My Family As His Family

Chase and I are heading up North to my grandma's this weekend, so Chase can go deer hunting for the first time ever. His excitement  really showed when we had some friends over for a spontaneous dinner and Wild hockey night last night, and it's all the guys could talk about. As we were sitting around the dinner table, the guys were talking all about hunting and Chase made a comment about how his uncle has guns that he could use ...or something like that... all I could remember is that he said "my uncle." The uncle he was referring to is my dad's brother... so really, MY uncle. But now he has become his uncle, too.

Hearing your spouse talk about your extended family as their own family is so incredible. It caught me off guard when I heard him say that. I feel like sometimes we can forget how sacred a marriage is... opening up your life to another person in such a rare way .. your marriage becomes your own new family, which is a portion of your whole entire extended family. It's not 'my' uncle anymore, it's 'our' uncle. And it's really special when your spouse forms such a great relationship with your extended family (even the little things like calling each other on the phone is really, really cool). Now, I only have two uncles on my dad's side of the family, so whenever we get together, it's a very intimate gathering. We really just sit around and talk, laugh, and really get to catch up on life. So relationships are a lot more solid than opposed to a bigger extended family (such as my mom's side of the family, where there's 6 aunts and uncles, 17 cousins, and many spouses and babies, where it's absolutely impossible to get everyone to commit to one weekend together). My husband has a very small family in the terms of aunts and uncles, on both his mom's and dad's sides. But whenever we get together with his relatives, every single person with their last name is invited (including grandma's brother's sister-in-law's daughter's nephew's wife's cousin). I mean seriously... there's a bazillion people and I never know how they are actually related. Just one more exciting 'challenge' that comes with marriage - to really get to know the relatives and have them become a part of your new family, along with you becoming a part of theirs.

And in honor of {some of} the people we're going to hang out with this weekend... here's a little example of the small, chaotic family reunions we have (not pictured: my brother and sister-in-law, brother-in-law, other uncle and his girlfriend, grandma, and grandma's sister). That's correct.. annual Nerf gun wars.