Last year I was chatting with Neil’s dad and we realized that Neil and his siblings had not been all together with their parents in over 20 years (23 as it was later determined). That was simply unacceptable. I made sure Neil’s mom wouldn’t object to having all her kids home at once and then I proceeded to nag my husband (in the nicest way possible) to arrange a weekend for all of his siblings to visit their parents at the same time. Just about a year after that first chat…it happened.

I’m not positive but I think all 4 of them went into the weekend with a little trepidation and not knowing exactly what to expect. What I heard from multiple sources was that they got lots of laughter, lots of time to chat and catch up, and some very long over-due pictures.

Neil drove up a bit earlier and got to catch up one-on-one with his parents for a while. It was kind of a novel experience for everyone because usually he has his whole family in tow. Me plus the kids is different vibe for sure. We missed him, of course, because it was the last in a long list of trips and we are excited to have him home all the way until the first week in December.
I did take the opportunity to tell all my own offspring that I won’t allow them to go that long without a visit with everyone together. Just to establish expectations.