“Sunday! A family day with a touch of weekend thrown in for good measure.” ― Anthony T. Hincks
Don’t you just love Sundays – that day of the week when we pause for a moment from our work routines? Well, those of us who don’t have those jobs that have to be done on Sundays too like nurses and policemen and preachers. But yesterday I started thinking about all the great Sundays I’ve enjoyed. And many of those happy days were with family members. Sunday is a day for families. It can start out with worship time with your church family. Those people you meet with on Sundays are a family too.
When I as a kid, Sundays meant fun with cousins. My dad wasn’t a churchgoer but he still took Sunday off. He was a farmer and sometimes an ox got in a ditch, but most of the time the work waited for Monday. My husband’s family were churchgoers and his dad would not work on Sunday, except he had a dairy. Cows don’t know Sunday. You have to milk them twice a day every day, so my father-in-law and my husband and his brothers did that work on Sundays. You have to feed your animals on Sunday too. But besides those necessary chores, Sundays were days to pause and rest.
Or play. That’s what we did as kids when we’d either go see our cousins at their house or they’d come see us at our house. The grownups would play cards or sit around talking, but we kids would be outside playing ball or hide and seek or exploring in the woods. Or letting me take their picture with my camera. I always liked this totem pole shot.
Then after I married and had my own children, Sundays still stayed special days for family. Every Sunday would start with church. It would be up and rush around getting the kids dressed and out the door on time for Sunday school an church. When they were babies it could be a challenge keeping them quiet in church. No nursery at our small country church. But a few Cheerios and plenty of stern looks got us through most mornings. Did you know that Cheerios dropped on a hardwood floor can roll a very long way? 
Plus, those Mary Jane black patent shoes with buckles can do a job on stockings. Back then, a woman had to wear stockings and dresses to church. Always.
After church, the kids would run around the churchyard and the adults would stand under the big old oak tree and talk. Then it would be off to either my mother-in-law’s house for dinner or to my mother’s. Sometimes we visited both places. My in-laws first and then my parents. The kids loved it when their cousins were there too. For them, the same as for me when I was a kid, that was play time with cousins who were also their best friends. Plus they loved visiting their granny who is in the picture with all but one of her grandkids.
Things are different for us now. We still get up and rush around to get to Sunday school, but the kids don’t get to come home every Sunday for Sunday dinner. Two of my kids live out of state. The other one is here in my town and sometimes they do come over on Sundays. They did yesterday and we had that fun family time. But my grandkids don’t have the fun of playing with their cousins at this grandma’s house on Sunday afternoons the way I did or the way my own children did. They do have that fun on the other sides of their families with cousins who live closer to them.
Do you have good memories of Sunday afternoon family times?
As always, thanks for reading.