Our Family - Family Socials

 by Cheryl Merrick

When our children married, Garrett and I had to face a situation that was unfamiliar to us. His parents lived in Ohio and mine in Idaho and later in California. None of us had the finances, health, or time for long trips, so we rarely saw our extended families. Our traditions revolved around just our own little family, and now, we had the family of our children’s spouses to deal with and all their different traditions. Things were getting pretty complicated!

We didn’t mind holding our celebrations on a day near the holiday and allowing our children to spend the holiday with their spouses family. We met around Thanksgiving, Christmas, sometimes Easter complete with kite flying and egg hunt, and had Father’s Day picnics at the Spanish Fork park, and a fall picnic in Maple Canyon. Sometimes we had the other parents come to our socials and often Julene’s good friend, Cindy, and our family friend, the Decker family, came to our socials. 

We had always hoped that our family relationships would be strengthened and our grandchildren would get to know their aunts and uncle by spending time together at socials. In some ways this did happen. Though there were a lot of rough times, we know that we have all eternity to become closer as a family. For now, we appreciate all the fun times we did have together.