1:05 pmLast night I spent alot of time with family that I haven't spent much time with since I got married. My ex seemed to make me a little anti-social with my family. Shortly after we got married he stopped wanting to do anything with my family, but expected me to go with him to all his family functions. Anytime we found out that our family was getting together, for anything, he would aways make up an excuse of why he couldn't go. And I was trying to save a dieing marriage, so I would stay with him. I always chose him over his family, but he never chose me over his family. Some of my family has even said to me that it has been nice to see me more often. These are people that I grew up with. I have a big family. My dad has 11 brothers and sisters, 8 of them live in the same area, are all married and have children. I have 20 couisins that I grew up around, they are all married and have children. So, needless to say, there are alot of people when we all get together. But they are all people I used to be very close to. My mom has 5 brothers and sisters that live in the area. I have 10 cousins from that side that I also grew up with and had been very close with. Yesterday I got to see alot of them. My grandma on my mom's side turned 80 on the 17th so we all got together for a lunch party. We took lots of pictures. I will put some up tomorrow. Then in the evening my mom, dad, sister, brother-in-law, their 2 kids, my son and I all piled into my parents Durango and drove up to Denver to see my dad's youngest brother who was visiting from Oregon. It was at my Aunt Chrissy's house. She is very wealthy. Her husband used to be the Promoter for the San Diego Padres and my aunt is the executive president for Weber Grills. They live in a mansion in Denver that has a picture window in the front of their house that is worth more than my entire house. It is very nice. So that is where we meet for family gatherings. It is almost like renting a banquet hall, but it is my aunts house. Anyway, it was so nice to sit and talk with aunts and uncles and cousins and reminisce about when we were little and how much fun we had together. We are all grown up now in have our own families, but it is nice to get together every once in a while. I had three glasses of wine (which is alot more than I normally drink) and was having a good time. So the conclusion of this journal is that I had a wonderful time without my husband. If we were still together, I would have missed out on the bonding time with my family, or would have had to be there without my spouse and have eveyone asking "Where is Ryan?"  That was always hard to answer and stick up for his anti-socialness. I do feel much better now that I had the chance to spend so much time with family.PS We got snow here in Colorado Springs this morning, and it is still snowing. :-)