Family Ties

One of the things that makes me the happiest when it comes to my relationship with Kristian is not only how wonderful his family is and how well I get along with them, but how well he gets along with my family. I was reminded of this while at my cousin's engagement party this past weekend. He's already met most of my family but he had the opportunity to meet even more of my extended family that I rarely even see. And as expected he did wonderfully. He's so incredibly friendly and outgoing, he can pretty much blend into any setting or group of people he's around.

More importantly he has a great relationship with my mom and my oldest brother Michael, who has been more like a dad to me over the years. He has the protective older brother job down like a champ. My brother has never been a big fan of any of the guy's I've dated in the past (with good reason) but he liked Kristian immediately. They get along great and it's so cute watching them bond over things like sports and cars and even watching K give my brother some dating advice and offer to be his wingman. Since there has been tension with my other brother it's nice that Michael now has Kristian to do brotherly activities with.

Kristian relationship with my mom is very sweet. She absolutely adores him. I knew that he was considered one of the family when I saw that my mom was including him on the family emails that she sends out to me and my brothers updating us on other relatives or asking us our opinion on upcoming family vacations. Even this past Christmas prior to us getting engaged I think my mom bought Kristian more presents then she bought for me and she even bought some gifts for his cat! This past weekend at the engagement party she was saying how she knew the first time she met Kristian (unexpectedly at my house warming party that she wasn't planning on coming to) that he was the one. She said she could tell by the way I introduced them and the way I looked at him. She told her girlfriend in the car on the way home that he was the guy I would end up with. Funny she knew before I did. But I guess that's why she's my mother.

After seeing some of the family drama that has taken place in other families as well as my own it makes me so grateful that my closest family members all love my future husband almost as much as I do :)