Grateful Sundays

This week, I am grateful for local family.

Really, I am grateful for all family, but something about having the luxury of spending Thanksgiving day with so many family members that just makes you grateful for the fact that so many live close by.

I never had the luxury of spending every holiday, birthday, and random Sunday barbeque with my cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents growing up.  Gardening Mom's family was (and is) all on the East Coast, and my closest cousins growing up lived a five-hour drive away.  We spend some holidays together, but it wasn't the same as Handsome Husband's family.  It wasn't like cousins growing up together so close you could think they are siblings. 

I love that we all live so close that I can see Gardening Mom, Hat Dad and my Sisters, and still manage to see so many members of Handsome Husbands family all in the same day. 

I think often times people take that for granted - the emotional closeness that comes from geographical closeness.  There may be downsides...family drama, a packed social calendar, a never-ending list of family members that must be invited to things.  But there is definitely an upside too, and for that, I am grateful.