Family time is precious...

Jenna Mindel here, blogging from Sunny Florida...  
Actually, I'm visiting my family this week, so if my responses are spotty, please forgive me.  I may be slow to respond, but I will respond. :)


My sister, Lisa and me.

 Family - what a wonderfully crazy gift God gives us.  Sometimes that gift is blessedly intact and sometimes it gets broken and kicked around like a misplaced Fed Ex package.  I'm fortunate to have the former but there's still challenges. 

One of those challenges is that my family is spread out and I don't get to see everyone as much as I'd like.  My parents, and my sister and her husband live on the gulf side of Florida about an hour north of Tampa.  My brother and his wife live in the Hudson Valley area of Upstate NY.  I have two nieces, my brother's girls, who are grown up now and one lives in Jacksonville, FL and the youngest one lives in Pittsburgh, PA.  I live in Northern Michigan.   

There was a time when we all lived within three hours of each other, and I took those days for granted.  Now, moments when we are all together are few and far between.  When we do get together, we cram as much catch up information as as we can, typically around the dinner table.  Email helps us keep tabs on each other, but it's not the same.  And so, I am blessed to be with them, but feeling a little nostalgic too. 

How does your family stay in touch?  Do you live close?  Have big reunions?