Family

This is a picture of all the cousins...who are more like brothers, really. (I mean the old ones...not the children.)

Family is so precious. We had a wonderful time with Chuck's Aunt Linda and Uncle Lou, Gramps, Cousins Trae, Tracy, Josh, Matt, Rebecca, Chase, Grayson, Darby, Leslie and her fiance' on Christmas Eve. (Oops...don't want to forget Todd! He's Lou's son from previous marriage.) One family lives in Virginia and the other in California; Gramps, Linda, Lou, Todd, Leslie and Darby are here locally or are in college. We miss them all terribly during the year, and look forward to our Christmas visits.

Gramps blessed my heart. He told us that he wanted us to think of him in love and remember that our family is made of love. He quoted Psalms (I'll have to look up the verse), "Love lifted me." Amen. My heart aches because I know he'll be going home with the Lord in the next few years. I think of him so fondly, a heart wrapped in love. His wife, Meems, passed away several years back. She was my favorite...full of grace always with a kind word and a smile upon her lips. When Gramps goes on he'll be joining his wife and two daughters, Becky (Chuck's mom), and Ellen (Leslie and Darby's mom). What a joyous reunion that will be! But I'm keenly aware that time is precious and while Gramps is here, we must drink him in.

I've been thinking about that a lot lately. Time with family is precious isn't it? I think of Aunt Mary or Uncle Tommy, Uncle Guy and Aunt Rita, Great Nano, or my own Grandma Violet and I wish I could turn back the clock and "drink them in," to know them more deeply. I wish I could know them with the wisdom I now possess, which seemed beyond my grasp so many years ago. As young people we take those in our lives for granted. But now as an "almost" 40 something I count every moment as precious.