Borrowed

I got to spend the day with my Baltimore brother and his wife this weekend. They were in San Diego for a wedding so I drove down and we went to see a National Monument-part of Megan's goal to fill her National Monument Passport with stamps-and then laughed ourselves mostly silly at a Mexican restuarant in Old Towne with some of their friends.

My sister-in-law is in the Coast Guard and her assignments have been on the East Coast for the last five years. It was nice to have them there when I was living in Boston-they adopted me for several Christmases and I was able to weasel some work trips to visit a few times as well. Sterling even braved a Friendsgiving in Boston once which thrilled me to no end. Showing off my siblings could be a full time job if people paid for such a thing.

We are a pretty close family. Ridiculously close actually. My mom loves to tell the story of the time we sat down to sunday dinner at about 5 and did not get up from the table until 1 in the morning. So I think marrying into us could be intimidating. I thought for the millionth time this weekend that we have gotten absurdly, awesomely-and perhaps even unfairly-lucky, when it comes to the women my brothers have brought into the fold. My brothers are all really different and their wives/fiances are all such great complements to their personalities. It's been so fun to watch my them end up with partners who appreciate the same things about them that we all love so much. All three are women that I see not just as family, but as friends that I'm delighted to hang out with even when the boys aren't around. They make boys who were already plenty good just kinda better. I feel like the pressure is on the girls now to come up with good brothers-in-law. I'll admit that on several occasions my feelings for a boy cooled when I imagined him being eaten alive at family dinner. People say that in a big family you always get one weird in-law but I'm not sure any of us could stand to be the one responsible for THAT.

Next week is Thanksgiving and I'm making plans to just sit on my mom's couch and eat guacamole and make candles and talk about going running several times but maybe only do it once. We'll be down one soon-to-be sister and the east coast cliffs but I'm already predicting that it will be epic. (Epic for us, boring for anyone who hears about it I'm afraid!)