Today Is...International Day of Families

When you're a kid it's kind of fun to have the family over but when we get older and move away to make our own lives, we only tend to see our families at special occasions such as Birthdays, Marriages and Christmas and those are generally just the immediate ones, the one's you could potentially get a new kidney from should you ever damage yours in a four week whisky bender incident.
Our world is built around a family structure. We're not like animals who have young, train them in the ways of killing prey, and then just let them go, we stay together giving each other likes on Facebook and hoping that the relative nobody likes doesn't mention he is coming to our area soon and where shall we meet up for a coffee.
Families do come together on occasions and there are some pitfalls to be avoided such as divorce which can be hard on the family reunion. After all, marriage made someone part of the family, and now they're gone but if you bring up the spouse, it's hurtful, but if you ignore the spouse's absence, it's weird.
If they turn up with a new spouse and let's say your 50-year-old recently divorced Auntie shows up to a family christening with a 19-year-old Latvian student, you obviously won't ask what happened to Uncle Tim but you know everyone is itching to ask her.
Some families just don't get on but if you think your family is bad then consider the family of the man we sing about every Christmas, Good King Wenceslas.
His father, the King, died in battle and his grandmother took the throne and was assassinated by her daughter who was usurped by her son Wenceslas who was then beheaded by his own brother which should put your slightly strained conversation at the family Christmas meal in perspective.