The Family Celebration

You can choose your friends but not your family.

That old adage about friends and family is absolutely true.  And most of the time it comes out in spades right around a celebration of some sort.

It's too bad because so often we end up ruining the celebrations that should be so special.  

It's been a crazy couple of weeks in the Loux household.  In mid-May I decided to move and in the meantime I've had more travel come up than the first few months of the year combined.  Which is why I didn't get something posted the last few weeks.

My niece graduated from High School in Michigan a week ago and we made the trip up to Michigan to celebrate with her and the family. It seems as though this part of the summer is filled with special celebrations.

Whether it's a wedding, a graduation, a birthday, Mother's and Father's Day we seem to gather to join the celebration.  But sometimes I don't love that they involve family.

That wasn't the case this past weekend but it too often can be.  Everyone has their own idea of how things should go and so often don't want to give up their ideas for the good of the celebration. And, that's a good thing because celebrations so often involve food and wine.

This celebration involved a lot of wonderful food and both family and friends.  It was fun to see all the food coming out.  One of the things I hate to see happen at any party is to run out of food.  I've been to celebrations where there's just enough food.

What so often ends up happening is that people don't end up eating.  They nibble instead of eat.  Especially those come and go as you please type of events. That's exactly what this graduation celebration was all about.  All day Sunday people came and went and filled their plates with food and enjoyed a beverage of their choice.

What I loved was that there was a little bit of everything on the tables. In addition to the pulled pork, BBQ sauce and salsa we brought up, there were two types of meatballs, fruit and vegetables with dip. There were all kinds of chips as well.

No one went away hungry if they didn't want to.

But more than that what I loved most was listening people talk and laugh and share stories together. I watched as my niece greeted everyone with hugs and thank yous. I have a very special place in my heart for all my nieces and nephews.

In the midst of the baggage of life, there's nothing like the unconditional love of the niece or nephew to make you feel OK when the whole world seems to be against you. This was a wonderful celebration of my niece's graduation and I wouldn't have missed for the whole world.

So, Kara, as you embark on this next step in life let me share my congratulations on your success.