What Makes a Family?

I know there are all sorts of things that make a family, and there are probably many articles out there about family.
This is my observation- when you add a family member that has lived a substantial amount of time outside of your family be it an older child adoption or even a daughter-in-law it takes time for them to feel like part of the family.
One thing I noticed with one of our additions is that families have a lot of inside jokes. We have punchlines, quotes, and routines.
For example, in our house if someone says (British accent) "with bare knees!?"  Another member will surely intone solemnly "with bare knees."
If someone starts in a whiney voice " a crust of bread, a piece of cheese". Most of us know that comes from a Hank the Cowdog audio.
Whole passages of Adventures in Odyssey will be quoted.

Anyway, you get the picture. One night after a wild supper-table exchange, Joe said, "It's weird mom, Zeke just finished your sentence, it's almost like he reads your mind."

We needed some memories, but it is hard to explain old sayings and somehow listening to old Odyssey CD's didn't quite do it for some of them.  We applied for SWAN (state-wide-adoption-network) input. Yeah, it feels a bit like adding another outsider because we have a social worker again. So far it has been good, she has input and experience from talking with other families in our situation. We also have a monthly dollar amount to spend on activities for our family. We went to the zoo in December and saw the apes actually running around their cage. (you know- memories)
We went bowling on Saturday night and made more memories. I never knew a bowling ball could roll so slowly and still knock over most of the pins!  We also found a cooking show contest online that we started watching as a family. It is British, so the accents catch their attention. It involves food that's good too. We cheer for our favorites and groan when their bakes flop.

It inspired Shekinah to lift her McD's chicken nugget on Saturday night and say...with accent in place..."I think this needs a little more spice."  Immediately the others picked up fries and said "this needs a little more bake time, it should be crisp."  We all got the punch lines. If someone ever says, "I've learned not to put my bakes in the bin."  We will all remember the contestant with red beard who got so frustrated and angry that he dumped his entry in the trash can and stalked out of the tent.

We need to keep it up...I have a cooking class scheduled for me and the girls . Any ideas are welcome.

some other memories...failed taffy

Big brother coaching push-ups

Zoombini-like valentines...they were fun.