10 on Tuesday: ten things I love about my family

My family... I wasn't sure, at first, if we were talking about my nuclear family (husband and two kids) or my extended family (parents, in-laws, step-mom, cousins, cousins-in-law, aunts, uncles, second cousins, cousins-by-marriage, etc.)

Then I thought about it, and realized that most of these apply to both groups, and it's silly to try to draw a line.

1) Love: even when we're mad at each other, we still love each other.
2) Good food: my family is packed with people who love to cook and eat, and I share in that joy with them.
3) Good books: my family is also packed with librarians and bookworms, so there's always somebody with whom you can share a new novel.
4) Good math and science: my side of the family is heavy on scientists and my husband's side is heavy on mathematicians, so there's always somebody around who can explain tidal pools or sub-woofers or Cauchy's Theorem.
5) Travel: I travel less than everyone else in the family (I'm a home-body, and having two small children makes long flights challenging) but everyone else travels to really cool places, and brings back pictures and spices and stories. I love hearing and seeing all of it and one day soon I think we'll join them in traveling more.
6) Traditions: we've lost some of our traditions as my grandparents' generation passed away, but we still know that stockings get opened before breakfast but big presents wait for after breakfast, and children get one present the night before Xmas, and everyone who has a job has to send a red envelope to anyone who's still in school on Chinese New Year's.
7) Loyalty: even when I've screwed something up, I know my family will stick up for me.
8) Kindness: this is something I've worked on with my children, and it mostly plays out in the larger family, too. We're kind to each other. We're gentle with each other's feelings and we play fair when we play board games.
9) Fairness: goes hand-in-hand with our notions of kindness.
10) Stories: we all share stories, whether it's the time that my cousin made herself throw up to get out of eating calves liver, or the time I nearly took out my aunt's mailbox. Sharing these is part of what binds us together!