Christmas 2009 is going to have a lot to live up to after this year. This was the best Christmas holiday I’ve had in years. We got great gifts for the kids, received some awesome gifts as well, saw our immediate family on both sides, I got to see my sister – twice! – for the first time in two years, and then on Sunday we went to my aunt and uncle’s house, where I saw some family that I hadn’t seen in over ten years.

We’re still not sure how it all happened that we got so out of touch. My aunt and uncle live about 20 minutes away from us. One of her daughters and her kids live about another ten minutes from them. The other daughter and her family live in Toronto but come out this way several times per year. And yet somehow it had been over a decade since I saw any of them – the last time I saw them, I wasn’t yet involved with George. Hayley and Breanna never even knew they have four cousins until they met them on Sunday. Meanwhile, growing up I saw them all so regularly at my home and theirs, and for most of my childhood I went and spent a week with them at their summer place in Vermont. They had a camper trailer in a nice summer trailer park right on Lake Champlain and that week down there was always the highlight of my summers. I never could have imagined so much time slipping past us without visits (though at least there have been emails and Facebook!).

The best part, though, wasn’t just seeing them again. The best part was that I walked into that house, the house I knew so well, and it was like ten years had never happened. Sometimes when you’re out of touch there’s a lot of awkwardness when you meet up again. Long silences, trying to fill in the blanks, peeking at your watch to see if you can leave yet, that sort of thing.

None of that happened. I walked through the door and one of my cousins greeted me and it was literally as though we had been hanging out as recently as last week. The talking started and it never stopped for a moment for the entire three hours that we were there. The joking between all of us, the banter, it was just the same as it had been 20 years ago when we would sit outside in Vermont and laugh until we cried.

There’s something very special about family members who can do that. We all had a very strong bond throughout my life and it was so good to see that it was still there. I couldn’t believe it when I saw that it was time to get ready to leave, it was hard to believe that three whole hours had gone by when it felt like we had just arrived.

Seeing the six girls playing together like I used to with my two cousins, hanging out with those same cousins who are now mothers just like me, teasing my aunt and uncle like I always used to, it felt just like home. And I guess you could say it was. I am so glad that I got to bring George and my girls into that circle so they could know these people who are so important to me, no matter how much time passes.

George has heard a lot of stories about my days in Vermont, but I don’t think I’ve ever really shared any of them online. My aunt showed me some pictures that she had found and my cousin scanned them for me – the sight of myself at roughly age 13 or 14 was hilarious and I will upload them and think of a few stories that I can tell about the old summer days.

In the meantime, I’m still glowing, more than 24 hours later, still unbelievably happy beyond words that we all got together yesterday. I don’t even know if they knew how much it all meant to me. All I know is that the culmination of December 24th through to December 28th was such that my holidays were essentially about family – and isn’t that what the holidays are really supposed to be about after all?