So this week I’ve been gearing up for our quarterly
potluck event. Every 5th Sunday, we celebrate a fellowship dinner
with our extended family. I started this tradition for several reasons… For one
I felt a bit disturbed by the fact that the only time we would see our local
extended family was usually at Thanksgiving dinner or when there were some type
of family devastation; I also felt that since we now have children, it would be
nice for them to grow up spending more time around their cousins and extended
family as well.
When my husband and I originally decided to start hosting
this event on a regular basis, I thought it best to do it one Sunday out of
every month. Well, my Uncle whom usually hosts Thanksgiving dinner and other family
events immediately told me that it was a great idea in concept to have potluck
monthly, but would prove to later be exhausting and overwhelming. Thank God for
his foresight and wisdom!!! After having that conversation with him, we decided
that we would host the event at our home every 5th Sunday instead,
which breaks down to about once a quarter.
I wasn’t sure if the idea would be well received, but I figured,
hey let’s give it a try. Needless to say, the event has been a major success!
It seems that everyone really enjoys having the opportunity to see and
fellowship with one another in this manner. There are no frills and no pomp and
circumstance; no one spends a lot of money on anything, they just bring what
they can and we all enjoy the fun time and communion. We never know what people
are going to bring and to be honest, a time or two we’ve had way too much or
way too little food, but that’s not the point. This gathering allows us an
opportunity to spend time with people we love and appreciate; we get to share
our life events as they unfold; we get to watch each other’s kids grow up; and
we get to show love to our loved ones while they are still here and living.
Since we’ve been hosting this event there have been some
pretty cool things to take place: family members who haven’t seen each other in
years (sometimes over a decade) have had a chance to reconnect; We announced
the news of my second pregnancy at potluck; and I have also seen some family
members who haven’t been in the best place emotionally glow like they hadn’t in
a long time while attending potluck. I have to be transparent and admit that
there have been some 5th Sunday’s that we’ve been exhausted and just
wanted to rest. Although, once the first few guests arrived we took a look
around and realized it was worth sacrificing some time and energy to keep this
going. I have even been quite moved on occasion, even to tears a time or two,
when family members came up to me and expressed their sincere appreciation for
the fact that we have taken this on.
I don’t know how often you see your extended family, but
maybe you too could do something like this. And even if you feel it’s too much
for you to handle, maybe you could make the suggestion to
another family member or rotate out the hosting responsibility. I just feel
that we should take time to commune with our family and enjoy each other while
we can. In the big scheme of things “Man that is born of a woman is of a few
days…,” as the great book says, so let’s focus on making our days a little
brighter with the people who matter to us the most!
Mommie Blessings,
Saved M.O.M.
