Family Birthday Dinners

For as long as I can remember... probably for my whole life, my dad's family has gotten together for each person's birthday to have dinner and hang out.  My grandparents had 2 kids - my dad & Aunt Debbie, and each of them had 2 kids... so until us grandkids started getting married and having babies, we've been a pretty small family.  Over the years we've adopted many family friends into the group and they've come and gone... but everyone who knows us knows anyone is welcome at Grandma Margie's.  Seriously, we'll just pull up another random chair to the table and squish in some more. 

In the last five-ish years, our family has changed dramatically.  My grandfather died unexpectedly in 2008 of a heart attack after battling Parkinson's disease for years, and at that time there was only 1 great-grandchild, Walker.  Since then, one cousin had triplets, the other had a second child, Parker & I got married (although he has been in the family for years), my mom passed away in 2012 and my Aunt passed away 2 months later... and now we have Ava Kate!

Through all of this, Grandma has stayed our rock and matriarch... and let's be honest... no one can cook like her.  No one.  With the death of my mom and aunt, the addition of lots children, and aging of my grandmother, we kind of fell out of our birthday dinner traditions a little bit... but we picked it back up this year!  Instead of Grandma cooking such a spread at least once a month, we now go out to eat or to one of the grandchildren's houses for dinner instead.  For Weston's birthday in July, Grandma cooked again and it was *delicious* as usual.

I've always loved my family, but with all we've been through in the last several years we've gotten closer.  I adore my cousins and Grandma (almost all of us are in education by the way - 2 teachers, a counselor (former teacher), and a principal!) and I cherish our birthday dinner tradition with our whole family!