Village of Williams

With the 4th of July having just rolled by it becomes that time again for the annual Williams family get togethers. Somehow over the years the 4th of July became a family reunion of sorts for us, not by any plan necessarily but because we have such a large family and with other holidays most of us split time with the other sides of our family. So the 4th became this huge get-together with fireworks, all the food we could eat -often including a huge breakfast of grandma and grandpas famous pancakes, pop (when we were little it was the one time a year all of us could have as much pop as we could stomach), hospital visits for burns and broken apendages, grandmas aloe vera plant, roman candle wars, shooting bottle rockets out of old cut off pole vaulting poles and the kind of family love that leaves your heart wanting to burst.

Our grandpa used to love getting everyone together, his favorite thing was counting off as a group right after the family prayer and right before a meal while we were all together, to see just how many we had  - this is actually a tradition we still do at almost all of our family get together's. In fact at Barry's 2nd Christmas with us this year he was literally shocked to see just how many people you can fit into our grandma and grandpas house - up to 80 sometimes people, we seriously don't mess around. His comment was - 'isn't this against some kind of fire code or something?" - which of course we William's have never been much for rules.

This will be the second 4th of July we've had since our grandpa has been gone, I actually did not even make it back last year from Texas for it - I think secretly I just wasn't sure I could handle it so soon without him. I have now made a promise to always try to make it back to see my family and to always make it a priority to keep these kind of family traditions alive through my children someday.

this is just a small portion of the family trying to take a group photo lol

This time of year always makes me so thankful for my family, not everyone has the chance to grow up in something so special or so chaotic. When you need them they are there; and even when you don't need them they are always still there.

We have this huge family that is sometimes chaotic, sometimes makes you want to pull your hair out but always, always makes you feel endlessly loved. It has been one of the most amazing gifts to grow up in a family surrounded by so much love. I have 30-some cousins alone on the Williams side, so we grew up with built in playmates, graduated together, we have been in each others weddings, been all up in each others business, been there for broken hearts, fought, laughed, gotten in some trouble, sometimes alot of trouble - but most of all we've loved. We were at all of each other's sporting events, and recitals, graduations, homecomings, Prom's, births and birthday's. They say it takes a village to raise a child and we were raised by just that, the Village of Williams.

Still trying - and this group is only the tip of the iceberg

Try getting away with anything when you have 7 uncles; they are going to find out and then they are going to give you the same lecture your parents gave you- trust me. I've been there. Mulitple times.
I've even had our Grandpa refered to as the Don of Joplin by friends, which may not be too far from the truth with him sitting at what we refered to as the 'guido booth' in the back of Moe's, always with some group of our family on any given day.
We always knew we belonged; we belonged to something so big and so special and I think it took many of us a while to realize just how incredibly rare a family like our's actually is. Not everyone was blessed with the kind of family we were. In fact, over the years we have adopted many many new members in the the family that may not be blood related but that never mattered to my grandparents, we're like the mafia, once your in - your in for life.

Its a chaotic life to have a family so big and so close, but it's our life and I would not change one second of it.

So at the 4th of July I remembered our grandpa and I look forward to celebrating the love we learned from him and our grandma at our wedding.
Celebrating with the Village of Williams