Family = this and that

My six kids took me out to dinner tonight to a very tiny and special place in Petaluma. The restaurant is down an alley, seats about 16 people max (we were a table of 7 and there were 4 others in the restaurant. Very small.)  There is one menu with 4 courses and there are three options for each course. You can have your meal without wine or  you can opt for the wine pairings.  You don't bring in wine. You either have the wine pairings or you don't have wine. Some nights there is live music. Tonight was one of those nights. The food was amazing, the ambience is so intimate and special without being anything but casual and the owners were gracious, charming and generous.

When we left the owner gave me a bottle of 1973 Ridge Lytton Springs Zinfandel. He GAVE me this bottle, no fanfare, no strings, he simply gave me the bottle of wine. As the seven of us were meandering out of the restaurant, onto the street, he followed us out and told us that the entire staff (which was him, his wife the chef, a sous chef and a helper) said that they wanted our group to be there every night, that's how much fun we were.

I cannot express in writing how much love there was at that table. My two kids Jenn and Gabe, my two other kids Annie and Dar and my additional daughter Stacey and her husband Ben, my extra son. (I don't think Ben knows that I think of him that way, but there you have it.)
Everyone of those kids is connected to each other in huge ways, every one of them would do anything for each other and I just got to sit there and revel in that connection and that love and know that they are my real life forever. 

Family is exactly that:  family is this person and that one and another one here and there.  Family is who you can trust, family is who makes you feel like life is worth something. Blood has little to do with it other than sometimes that's where it starts, but that is never where family ends. It never ends, if you are lucky. Tonight I saw how lucky I am. 

So, although I know they don't all read this, my giant love to Jenn, Gabe, Annie, Dar, Stacey and Ben, not just for an amazing dinner and wine and music and laughter, but for being my family.  And for all that love.

xoxoxoxo  long time, big time, all the time.