Families are Strange

I went out for lunch with my friends on Friday. Mona was telling us about her Thanksgiving dinner before Thanksgiving. She has been doing this the whole time I have known her. At this dinner her son invites his friends and they all eat turkey. This year her daughter from Arizona was here so they were doing the family thing also and invited her daughter and family from Ridgefield over also. The day of the gathering her daughter called and said she was sorry but they would not be coming because of David's friends being there, but that they would come if Mona told the friends they couldn't come. Mona wasn't about to do this and her daughter did not understand. Mona said it was the best gathering of people she has ever had at her house. All the friends were very well mannered as she expected that they would be. She said four babies came this year and everyone watched their own baby. Barb and I just commented that it was her daughter's loss.
Cassie's family is kind of this way also. Myk is not allowed at her mom's house because he is a criminal. He is also not allowed at her brothers' house. But the topper to that is neither is Cassie because she smokes. So we tell her that it is their loss that they don't want to get to know anyone who lives life differently than they do. Families are strange, even if I do understand wanting to protect our children.