Blessings of family

I have been blessed with a gift that is becoming more and more rare in our society - a family in close proximity. My parents, my brother and his family, my sister and her family, my aunts and uncles and cousins and their families, all live within a 30 minute drive of each other. Only my grandfather has moved to Florida.

This afternoon we had a family get-together in honor of the fact that my Floridian grandfather is up visiting for two weeks. My aunt and uncle hosted the get-together and there was a huge buffet table of dishes we all contributed. We ate, caught up with cousins we hadn't seen since Christmas, declared how big all the kids were getting, met the new boyfriend and girlfriend of my single young adult cousins, played croquet in the backyard, watched all the second cousins running around in packs playing "ninjas", and oohed and ahed over my uncle's manmade pond.

I look at my cousin who is a mom of a 6yo boy and a 4yo girl and see how frazzled she is as a full-time mom and remember when she was 8 years old and used to play barbie dolls with my sister. I see my 6 foot tall, 200 lb. male cousin with the beard and the girlfriend and I remember when he was 4 and my brother used to play with him by holding him upside down while he squealed in delight. I see my 84 year old grandfather who is more stooped-over and frail looking each time I see him and remember when his hair was a lot darker and his step was a little lighter when we were still kids and he still lived in Indianapolis and my grandmother was still alive. We'd go to their house almost every Sunday for dinner. We were a close family. We are a close family. I know that no matter what the world throws at me and throughout all the ups and downs of life, I will always have my family. I am blessed.

Here is my grandfather and his nine great-grandchildren.