family

So I've been back for a day now. I spent the weekend in Abbotsford for my great-Grandma's 95th birthday. Lots of family . . . staying in a hotel room with my parents and my sister . . . going somewhere without my own car for the first time in a while . . . a much different weekend than I normally have. But it was a great weekend! I have an absolutely crazy extended family, who want nothing more than to have a good time when they get together.

As we were driving home yesterday (Monday) a comment that one of my roommates had made a while back popped into my head. We were chatting one day and she made a comment about how it seemed like we all spent so little time with our families now that we were out on our own. All of my roommates and I come from pretty good families, yet it seems as though moving out for all of us meant that we spent less and less time with our families.

I know for myself, it's not really all that strange for me to go a couple of weeks without seeing my family other than in passing at church. And phone calls . . . well . . . I try, but our schedules don't always connect the first time so I give up. For me, I see family at holidays and on occassion otherwise, but not too much. I think what really hit me about this week was a comment my Grandma made in passing. She said something about how I don't stop by very often. I used to . . . when they lived on the lake I was over all the time . . . but she's right, I don't come by very often anymore. Yet I love spending time with my grandparents.

Anyways, all this got me thinking . . . I think I very easliy begin to take my family for granted. I know that they love me, and I know that if I need them all I have to do is phone and they'll come. I also know that I have more extended family that I know and enjoy being around than most people. But I often find myself just assuming that they will always be there, because they always have been. I mean, really, how many people have grown up with great-grandparents and great aunts and uncles around, besides grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins?! I've been seriuosly blessed in that department.

I came home this weekend with the realization that my crazy and loving family is not something that I should take for granted . . . but something that I should value. I can't put a price on my family . . . all I can do is make it a priority to spend with time with them - to make that second phone call to see if they're home yet, to stop by my grandparents' more often, to just be around them.