Winners All...No Losers

Over the Christmas holiday, we went to my brother's place for dinner. Most of the Wichita family was there...sis and her extended family, my brother's daughters, and our sons and their families. We did the things we usually do at a gathering such as this. We ate, visited, played games, ate, and visited. A good time was had by all.
One thing we did, though, that I really enjoyed for more than one reason was later in the afternoon, we went outside and had a touch football game for awhile, then played workup softball.
This may not seem like much, but I think the last time we did this was 8 years ago in the family's home town, on the home place, just before we moved away from there. We went out into the patch (as we called it), set up some bases, and played workup softball after Thanksgiving dinner 2000.
We aren't very good. We don't try to kill the ball. In fact, we usually have a rule that if the ball goes so far into the outfield, it's an out. That saves us out of shape oldsters from having to shag balls all the time and levels the field for all.
The point isn't who wins or loses. The point is doing something that we've done as a family over the years and keeping the tradition alive. And this last time, we had some newer members of the family that played with us. We welcome them and hope they can play workup with us for a long time to come.
However, there will come a time when we won't be able to play workup or divide up and play football. There will come a time when those things will be memories, just as the home place now is a memory. But at least for now, we can still throw a softball. We can still work up fancy schmancy football plays (that seldom work as planned). And we can cement the memories and familial relationships that have made this life so extra special for us all.