“Honor thy father and thy mother: that the days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.” (Exodus 20:12)

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged. I have lots of thoughts about what to blog about, but I haven’t made the time to blog. The last month has been a month of honoring our parents, and Debbie and I have made this a priority in our lives and are very blessed that both of our parents are alive and healthy.

My mom lives down the road from us and we have her up for dinner three or four times a week. Our younger kids love to have her over and really enjoy going to Grandma’s house. I believe that my mom’s ability to live so close and be with us and the grandkids during the week is one of the greatest joys in her life….and interestingly enough, it is something our kids love as well.

Mom started a tradition about 20 years ago where she would cook a big meal for us on Christmas. We didn’t have much money growing up, but on Christmas she would buy a Prime Rib and cook it. She makes these rolls that are my favorite….she cooks them in a large tuna fish can! She makes salads, pies, potatoes…a Christmas feast. We lost our brother about 20 years ago in a car wreck. Ever since then, mom honors him by bringing out a 6 pack of Miller, his favorite beer.

This year, the baton was passed to my two older sisters. It was amazing. They cooked a feast for the family and all the details were remembered-multi-colored fruit salad, prime rib, rolls….even the 6 pack of beer.

I watched mom smiling ear to ear during the day as she watched her daughters carry on a tradition that she had started years ago. Mom truly felt honored that day and everyone in the family felt pretty close to one another.

Sometimes I take for granted that she lives down the street and I get to see her a number of times during the week. I forget that I didn’t have much of a relationship with her parents, and never met my grandpa on my dad’s side and only met his mom a few times. It’s different for my kids, and I’m hoping that when they have kids of their own they, too, will live close to us and we, too will enjoy a relationship with our grandkids.