Reflections on a weekend with the in-laws

It's interesting how, several years out of the church now, my perspective on it continues to change and evolve. This was brought into relief this weekend as my in-laws flew out and we all stayed together in a beach house.

• Garments. Garments, everywhere! They're starting to look really weird to me, whereas I used to feel self-conscious not wearing them.

• Beach apparel. FIL wore heavy cargo shorts and a cotton t-shirt with his garments under all of it for swimming in the ocean. My wife says he does it for the protection. He already doesn't swim well. Seems like a good way to drown.

• BIL and SIL attempted to drag their jet-lagged infant to an out-of-town sacrament meeting. He was not having it.

• At the beginning of the trip I pulled the tags off of my tea bags to allow them to believe it could be herbal tea. By the end I had quit bothering.

• While they know we don't believe, they still would say faith-specific things matter-of-factly, like, "well we know they'll be together when they die", or "he knew he was so blessed because of paying tithing". How am I supposed to respond to that? Nod in agreement? Say, "actually, ..."

Glad we could spend some time with them. Also glad they're gone.