In Sync with Sisters-in-law

“A good sister-in-law is worth a thousand friends.” – Unknown

I married young and have been a part of my husband’s family for many years. His family became my family. We just got back from a little vacation retreat with that family. I’ve written about our sibling trips here on One Writer’s Journal a couple of times before and shared how we wanted to be sure our families didn’t grow apart after my husband’s parents passed away.

Darrell’s family was always close with many Sundays spent together and plenty of other times when we worked together on this or that chore on the farm or at the house. My father-in-law died about ten years before my mother-in-law. As long as she was living we all made sure we got together with her on special occasions. She loved her family so much. But after she passed away and all our families were changing with married children and grandchildren making it hard to find a time when we could do the kind of family visits we had done when we were younger. Now we were the grandparents that were having the kids come home to our houses on holidays and birthdays.

But we didn’t want to grow apart and lose the closeness the siblings had. So, we started doing these sibling retreats with my husband’s sister and brothers and their wives. That sister and the brothers’ wives are my sisters-in-law.

“Having you as my sister-in-law is like winning the family lottery.” – Unknown

Being part of a loving family with sisters (in-law) who get along is like winning a family lottery. Our get-aways together have made that even more true as we’ve learned more about each other and as we’ve shared about our children and grandchildren and a couple of families even have some great-grandchildren now. While our grandkids are spreading their wings and scattering across the country at various jobs and schools, we don’t often see the younger members of the other families, but after our trips together we feel like we have seen them in some ways as we share pictures and stories about them all.

We share our own life changes. My husband’s sister’s husband wasn’t with us this year as he passed away this year. So things do change for our families. We share those moments, the good and the sad. But when we are on these family retreats the rented houses are filled with laughter. We play games. We talk. We eat. And we sisters draw closer to one another. One of the games we played was N Sync (I’m guessing at the name of the game). In it, you paired up with someone. Then a third person read a category such as presidents, kitchen, or fill in the blanks and would ask something like name a kitchen utensil or tree (fill in the blank.) Then the two paired up would have to say their answer to whatever the question was at the same time. That game had us all laughing. Laughing is good for you.

Most years we sisters-in-law go out walking. Also good for one’s health. The last few years we’ve taken a selfie while out hiking. One year we even thought it would be fun to do a silly face one. They are probably going to disown me if they find out I shared that picture, but I’m pretty sure they will forgive me. Eventually! They are fun-loving sisters.

“I’m blessed to have a fun-loving sister-in-law.” – Unknown

Those who have a sister-in-law never get bored.” – Unknown

We certainly didn’t get bored on our trip this year. We had a niece and her husband join us this year and they brought more smiles and laughter with them. She was three when I married into the family.

We tried to remember how long we’ve been doing these family trips, but none of us could come up with a number. We had an estimate of more than twenty years. Each year it gets better and our “sister” bonds grow tighter. And that is good. I know my mother-in-law smiles down on us when she hears our laughter. She would probably nod and think that she taught her kids to know how to have fun. I think she would be glad her sons picked wives who know how to be friends.

Have you ever been on a family retreat?