We’ll be that family.

We all have stories about a weird family in the neighborhood where we grew up, right?  Everyone remembers that family from their childhood.  Think about it.  Remember that family?  Yea, so it turns out, we are that family!

In the beginning, I thought of us as “non-traditional old-school” folks (whatever that means).  Then I moved towards the thought of us as “non-conformists”.  But the weird family?  Us?  It never dawned on me until the night of our second Thanksgiving…

Um, ok, point taken.

First Thanksgiving was a debacle, for me anyway, so I wanted a do-over.  We decided to have a spontaneous random Thanksgiving dinner with our neighbors.  Everyone contributed something to the meal, and it was lovely.  We had a 26 lb. turkey and all the fixins.  It was when we started sharing our gratitudes (which we do every night) and asked the neighbors to share theirs, that I realized just how odd we are.  As the conversation unfolded, and evolved, and went off on other tangents, I listened to how our neighbors see us as being “different”.

We’ve been together longer than most couples our age have known each other

have way more children than the average family

are strange, unsocialized homeschoolers

with an affinity for alternative medicine

shopped at “granola head” markets before it was trendy to do so

and it all began because our children had a diagnosis that most people knew nothing about

so they became the kids that had “food intolerances” and were “chemically sensitive”

which made us the parents that talked about “gluten & caseine free diets”, “NAET treatments”, and the importance of getting as much raw fruits & vegetables into our bodies as possible

we watch documentaries, discuss conspiracy theories, debate religion & politics

no longer do we celebrate Christmas or any other winter religious or cultural holiday.

Instead, we’re making up our own holiday, it’s still in the works… the neighbors may knock on the door one day in the Spring to ask why we have lights up.  When we answer the door, we may or may not be wearing costumes.  It’s possible the house will be filled to the brim with all sorts of paper flowers.

You’d think that fighting in front of them on Thanksgiving day would change things, but they just shrugged their shoulders and said “we’re like family”.

Because we’re also the family that hosts random spontaneous second Thanksgiving

we pick up trash from around the neighborhood because we care about stuff like that

Papa even resorts to curbing other people’s dogs because “kids play in that grass”

I bake treats for new neighbors moving in because “I always wanted to live in that kind of community”, and much to my dismay, no one ever brought us jello molds or pies

our kids are sincerely adored because they are polite and thoughtful

they go above and beyond to help lost animals be reunited with their owners, help neighbors carry their groceries to their door, and constantly think to bring a plate of dinner or piece of dessert over for them

grandma from down the block relies on us to get to her doctors appointments

there are knocks on the door to borrow a ladder, a roll of toilet paper, or “a couple of bucks until I get paid”

I guess despite all our oddities, we are that family too.

So I guess, whatever, we’ll be weird.  We’ll be that family.

Tagged as: On My ♥