I was thinking about my family's visit yesterday. As usual we ended up sitting in a group and just talking, the little people running in and out amongst us. It was a scene I have experienced since my childhood when we would visit my Grandparents. my mother's family. Every visit would  be the same, everyone would sit around the large dining table and gossip - about family, friends, the world. Eventually the men would wander outside for a drink or two, the children would play together in the yard and the ladies would continue their conversation. If Grandma, or any of my unmarried aunts had sewn a new dress or made a craft item it would be brought out and admired. Just before it was time to leave the ladies would take a tour of the garden to look at the flowers or new plant additions. Cuttings would always be shared and Mum would go home clutching a piece of this and that.

We replicate this tradition to this day - except now the men wander off to watch sports on television! It is like a continung thread that stitches the past and present generations together. Whenever a family member hears that the family is getting together and they have to be absent they all lament the fact that they will miss out on the group talk and guess what the subjects will be. We have a running joke that every family gathering ends with a conversation about bowels and it ususally does in some way or another! It makes the absentee homesick to know the others are together, even when imaginng a discussion on bowels! It is the anchor of the ever extending family.

It makes us, us. It is what binds us together, past and present, present and future. Family.