The Fam

In my last post I said that the first photo I went searching for in the photographer's proofs was the one with me and my sibs.

Here's the second one I looked for: the photo of the whole family.

This photo includes my brothers, sister and their spouses, my nieces and nephews (minus 14 of us couldn't make it), plus my girls, my excellent son-in-law, my grandsons, my future grand daughter-in-law, plus all the Spencers. What a nice looking bunch, eh?

When Morley looks at that photo full of relatives, he gets all warm and fuzzy. He relishes--no, he craves--family, and now thanks to me he has a big 'un. He loves, loves, loves his new mega size family and they love him right back. As a bonus, all his life he'd wished for a daughter and now he has three. He's in Family Heaven. I give and I give, people.

Soon after Morley and I starting dating he mentioned the one thing he'd always wished for but never had was a big family. Since I already knew I wanted to marry this guy I instantly jumped on this information as giving me a tactical advantage. I happen to specialize in Big Family.

And so a month or two later I invited him to go with me to Tennessee for Thanksgiving with the 'fam. I knew this was my big chance to either (1) tempt him with the potential of being part of a big family, or (2) send him running for the hills screaming like a girl when he saw what he was getting into.

And as I expected he'd be, he was a bit overwhelmed that first year, not only because there was so many of us but also because he was awestruck that we actually seemed to like each other. Fortunately the temptation of family won out, and to tell you the truth I think that first Thanksgiving is what hooked him (of course it took me another few years to get him to the altar but that's a story for another time).

To give you an idea of the culture shock he must have felt in meeting my family for the first time, here's a photo of the Dockins family (minus 14) who were at the wedding:

...and here's a photo of the entire Spencer family (minus 3) who were in attendance:

PS: I didn't tell him I have 98 first cousins until a couple of years later. There's "big family" and then there's "ridiculously out of control procreation". I'm just saying.

PPS: On a totally different topic, here's an alarming article I spotted in an English newspaper. Anybody who has ever seen me around a hot pepper can understand the chill of fear this news gave me. I'm gonna have to be more careful.