I (Karrie) did not come from a particularly large family. Growing up, my "family" consisted of my grandparents, parents, 1 brother, 3 Aunts, 2 Uncles, and 3 first cousins (all boys). Unfortunately, my immediate family did not stay very local to the rest of the family which meant that we didn't see them very often. I remember a few summer trips to visit the family when I was young, but after I turned about 13 they seemed to pretty much stop.
After 12 years of marriage, I have seen something very different from part of Jon's family. In addition to his grandparents and parents, he has 1 brother, 3 Uncles, 1 Aunt, and 6 cousins. They are all spread out across the globe, yet one side of his family gets together quite regularly (at least every couple of years, but as of late, every year and that is quite a feat since one person comes all the way from Micronesia!).
Today, I got to visit with one of my cousins for most of the day. When we were younger, he and I would spend most of the time together at family functions because we were the closest in age. I would guess today was the first time in close to 20 years that we'd spent much time together.
It was obviously different than before, but in a good way. We each had our spouse and our kids there (he has 2 boys who are the same ages as my kids). The adults talked while the kids played. It was nice being able to "catch up." I also enjoyed the fact that the kids had a great time together. Didn't hurt that all the adults got along too. Made me think of how nice it would be if we could live closer so that we could see them more often.
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