You can pick your nose...

The saying goes that you can pick your nose and you can pick your friends but you can't pick your family.

I realized that this is probably a very good thing. Would you, for instance, have picked Aunt Gertrude that smells like a mix of cat urine and moldy socks?

Nope. Probably no one would pick poor Gertie.

But due to the magic of family, we are given this random mix of people who shape who we become.

Would you be the same if your father wasn't a military man? If your mother hadn't driven you crazy with her rules? Or did them being who they were turn you into who YOU are?

I didn't pick my family. And I am glad. Given the choice, I probably would have altered bits of my childhood. But I am glad I can't. Why?

I like who I am. I like the mangled up and twisted things that happened to me because without them, I wouldn't be me.

Some family you do get to pick. In this case I am referring to friends. These people you meet along the way and for some reason or another, they stick.

Your mom is still your mom and your kid sister still the only kid sister you would ever want... But friends give you those things that your family can't provide for whatever reason.

Does this make the 'adopted' family any less important?

Nope.

Anyway, I am glad for my family even if it is probably the picture of dysfunctional. I like our BradyBunch meets the Simpsons holiday events.

What makes your family special? Would you have changed it if you could?