There is family and there are friends and sometimes you are fortunate enough to have the two overlap...
Just before Christmas, we put our baby into storage in St. Augustine and drove to North Carolina to spend Christmas with our daughter. My son and his girlfriend were also able to join us for the holiday. As I mentioned in a previous post, this is our first Christmas without the fifth member of our immediate family.. our former home. Therefore, old Christmas traditions have faded while new ones are yet to be birthed.
A few days afterwards, we hopped into our truck and headed back to Delaware to help organize our daughter's Wedding Shower. Sadly, we chose the coldest freaking week of the century to return home! We left 80 degree weather and were greeted with a icy cold slap in the face! There was snow mixed with temperatures of -11 degree (wind chill)! Yikes. These people are living like animals!
For the first week we were hosted by two of our dearest friends Ed and Linda. We have been friends since our sons were in pre-K4 together. If I had to choose a word to describe their friendship it would be "steadfast". (And this is probably the only time I would ever use the word "fast" when describing these two! ;) We have been through much together. Life's highs and lows. Struggled through parenthood. Watched our children grow up together. Vacationed together. Laughed together and cried together.
Although having "others" in your home, invading your private space, and disrupting your set schedules can be challenging at times.. they graciously put up with us and we are very grateful for their generosity. To us, they have also become family; and hence the overlap.
The following week my brother and his wife, Sheldon and Carolyn and their wonderful daughter Lara (little pickle) opened up their home to us. And not only did they put up with us for over a week, they graciously opened up their home to forty of our guests for my daughter's bridal shower! Wow.
Thanks to the hard work of Carolyn, Lorraine, Debbie (Kayla's future mother in law), the bridesmaids, and especially the Maid of Honor, Carly, the shower was a complete success!
Hard to believe that just two days prior, my daughter was sobbing because her flight to Philly was canceled due to the winter storm and threatened the travel plans of those coming from out of state.
We spent a wonderful week with them. Not only are they our family but also two of our closest friends. We enjoyed warm laughter, many good meals, many glasses of wine and lots of Mario Cart and WOT (the true highlight of my vacation)!