...................................Prayer...................................
 

God bless my mom and dad,
And other family.
Keep them warm and safe from harm
For they're so close to me.
 

Amen.

Previous Thoughts Index

...Family

I am so very blessed to have been born into a closely knit family.  My parents, sisters and families and mine happily spend holidays together, vacation together, shop together, and keep in daily contact with each other.  I live next door to my youngest sister, my parents live a block down the street and my other sister lives about an hour away.

Our holiday traditions are rich with close family involvement.  We all look forward to Christmas Eve spent at my sister's beautiful log home in the woods, playing the "T'was the Night Before Christmas" game, where we all just about kill each trying to steal presents (we each pick several index cards with key words from the story and every time your word is read you get to first pick from the large pile of presents and when that is exhausted you start stealing from others) from each other as my sister reads the classic tale.  On Halloween, we trick or treat as a family group, moving from house to house in the cool autumn evening, telling the little ones to hurry up and the older ones to slow down and not get so far ahead.  We go to Mass together with my sister and her family coming down occasionally to attend with us.

My fondest vacation memories are those spent together at Deep Creek Lake and Cape May.

Maybe too much togetherness for some families but for us...perfect.  Thank you, dear Lord!