the nielson sunday dinner

I'm in Arizona and it is hot, hot, hot. Like so hot that I'm thinking, "Why am I here?" but then it was Sunday dinner and I remembered that I love my family. It is excessively loud with the children running around dressed in my old Prom dresses from GrandMary's dress-up box. I had to triple the dinner roll recipe (and there still weren't enough) and my dad and I sat squished at the end of the table where sixteen adults bumped elbows. Then we all sat around and talked until 9:30 and I thought that I love my family even though we're really loud and often talk over each other and eat too many dinner rolls.

Here's what post-Sunday dinner at my parent's house looks like. Three of my sisters sitting at the kitchen table and talking. A few couples sit, holding hands, on the sofa. Children running around and playing tag or making up an elaborate story-game. Of course, my mother is doing dishes, starting a load of napkin laundry or loading one of the two dishwashers in the kitchen until one of us remembers to get up and help! And inevitably the back door is open with children running in and out and the air conditioning at full blast so someone yells, "Shut the door!" It's crazy and I love it.

Do you have fun family traditions like this?