Food is our connection at every family gathering we have. I have three sisters who all live in southern Washington. As a family with busy lives we don’t get together often but when we do the first discussion is what’s for dinner. Food seems to be a driving force when it comes to having something to do as a family when we are all together. Food is something we all have in common and usually the one thing that we all agree on, eventually.I often think that food is a connection for us because we use it as a sort of avoidance. If we are cooking we disagree about anything and we don’t have to really talk about anything but cooking. I guess it is sort of strange but it actually tends to be, for my sisters and myself, a way of non-communication. The interesting thing is that even that there are even more traditions connected to food when it comes to my family. Holidays are a good example; we always get together for Christmas. Since there are so many steps and grandparents to consider we try and come together on a weekend close to Christmas so that the actual day is reserved for the kids at home. This year we had the celebration in Yakima which meant my families driving over the Pass. Once there we found that no one wanted to cook. The other three sisters were going to serve up their own family tradition and make spaghetti. Spaghetti for Christmas dinner, imagine that. I shut up and ate it anyway. As it turns out the spaghetti “tradition” began because when my sisters were little; my mom would make spaghetti whenever they came to visit. (They lived with their mom) She made it because it was easy and there would be a lot to go around. This tradition that is born out of my mom being frugal and lazy but still continues today.Food is often the excuse to be together for us as well. We have potlucks and BBQ’s because visiting and eating is easier for us than visiting and talking I guess. Food is often the thing that, in our family, makes it possible to connect. The funny thing is that we all need to lose weight but we don’t stop the eating when visiting because it is a tradition and traditions are important, apparently in our family even more important than waistlines.
