"Monday Night Dinner"

I didn't get much knitting done tonight - but that's okay. It was "Monday Night Dinner."

Anyone who knows anything about our family, knows about Monday Night Dinner. Most people are amazed and, I think, really a little jealous that we do this. I guess I can't blame them - I am blesssed with an awesome family.

Monday Night Dinner started about 27 years ago. See, I met the hubby my first year away at college. One month after starting college, I met the hubby. From the day of our first date we pretty much saw each other every day. I lived in the dorms, he lived off campus. We were inseparable. We were in love. New love.

Skip forward about a year-and-a-half. We're engaged and done with school. Six months until the wedding day. We come home to get jobs - he goes back home to live with to his parents, I go back to mine. All of the sudden we live about 45 minutes away from each other and can't see each other every day. Not good.

So, Mom suggested he come up on Wednesday nights for dinner. We can see each other in the middle of the week, and he can spend a little more time getting to know the family. My sister still lived at home, but my brother had moved across town. But, on Wednesday he'd come home for dinner. My sister's boyfriend would come, too.

From then on, for the last 27 years, our family has gotten together once a week at Mom and Dad's for dinner. Every week, with very few exceptions. See, Monday Night Dinner actually started out as Wednesday Night Dinner.

Things have changed a lot in 27 years. When Wednesdays didn't work anymore, instead of giving up the tradition, we all found another day that would work. We grew up together. My brother and sister both got married. The hubby and I had three kids..... then my sister and her husband had three kids. Things have changed, but we all still go "home" once a week and have dinner together.

Our family is like most families - we are all very different, but that's what makes it so fun. We've had many a "spirited" conversation - we'll, mostly the guys and their famous debates. Monday Night Dinner is where my hubby, brother, and brother-in-law all became best friends. And still are today.

It's where the kids run around and have fun, until they get too loud and we inevitably send them outside. Every week - they can't wait to see each other. They're totally bummed if for some reason we can't go. School and work schedules are planned around Monday Night Dinner, if at all possible. It's when we celebrate birthdays and accomplishments. It's where we all catch up on what happened last week, and what we're going to do this week - where the guys are going to mountain bike ride next week, or hike, or camp, or motorcycle ride or, like tonight - work on their minibikes for next weekend.... It's when the girls plan their next sleepover (tonight, actually), or a day with Grandma. It's where my sister and I just sit back and watch it all happen, and let someone else cook one day a week (THANKS Mom.... I don't say that often enough). It's one of the reasons my sister and her family didn't move away last year.

Things have changed - from it just being Mom, Dad, and newlyweds - to young families with high chairs all 'round - to finally outgrowing the big dining room table, so that now there's a kid's table and the "adults" eat in the living room - but it's a small house, and we're all still pretty much in the same room and it's still one big family, and one big conversation.

Our kids have grown up together - they're all "our" kids. Our kids have been blessed to have grown up in a family that respects and appreciates each other - and they have seen that through tough times, disagreements, but mostly through love and fun times, that family is family - they are special, they love you no matter what, and there is nothing, besides their God, that is more important.

Thank you Mom, for cooking Monday night dinner, every week, for the last 27 years. It's who we are. I love you. See you next week.