Oh happy day..

 My west coast brother informed me that today is American Family Day and requested that I blog something about the family.  Earlier today, answering questions from a good friend, I discovered that today is also Sisters Day and National Hand Loom Day.  I mention that last because I use a hand loom (actually a lap loom) to do all my craft work.  That really doesn't have anything to do with my family except that over the last few years I have gifted many family members with scarves woven on my loom.  And about Sisters Day, I don't have any biological sisters.  I did have a 'sister-cousin' who was very dear to me, and I have an amazing sister-in-law, married to my west coast brother; one of the smartest things he ever did.  But I'm also part of a very supportive and loving sisterhood, a yarn group we call Faith, Fiber and Fellowship or FFF for short.  Our weekly meetings are equal parts spending time knitting, crocheting, or in my case weaving, and very supportive conversation.  But about American Family Day, I hardly know where to start.  We were not a "Leave it to Beaver" family.  My mother certainly didn't wear pearls and cute dresses to clean house, but we were a very loving family, secure in our sense of belonging, of being American.  My father's grandparents had immigrated from Germany and they settled in a predominantly German-American community.  However, my dad's parents were determined that he would be American so they spoke only English in their home.  This was great except when he was sent to first grade, the teacher taught the classes in German.  He struggled through the first year but then, and I suspect my grandpa had something to do with this, it was decided that the children in the small Lutheran school would be taught in English.  I'm pretty sure this also had something to do with not wanting to be identified as German during WWI.  So, were we an American family?  Oh yes indeed.