When I was married, I had just one older brother that was already married, which meant I had one sister-in-law at the time. But Steve was on the younger end of his family and most of his siblings had married by the time I came into the family so I joined one large family – a whole bunch of in-laws!
I know in-laws often get a bad reputation for being insufferable and overbearing – but this couldn’t be further from the truth. There are some pretty significant age gaps between some of us, but it doesn’t change the connection and relationships. With a family of this size, it’s not common to have everyone gathered. So when they do gather, they try and take a photo of the siblings and their parents. Sometimes the in-laws are invited into the photo but that makes for a really large photo, so it’s often blood relatives only.
Over the years, the family joke has been how amazing the in-laws are and what an addition they are to this family, the better half if you will. 🙂 (It’s a joke because you can’t hardly tell who is blood and who is an in-law in this family because they’re all treated equally…unless there is a sibling photo! And Steve’s parents have tried so hard to kill the joke over the years because they hate the thought of anyone feeling like less in this family – which just makes the joke live longer!)
So every time the siblings are gathering to take a family photo, there’s an in-law rallying the troops to take a non-sibling photo.
This weekend as we gathered for a family wedding, we opted for an in-law photo…also known as the “glue” of the family – just on the other side of us are the siblings cracking jokes about our amazing photo.
I love these people (I also love the people they’re married to). They are always a good time – and always good for a laugh.
