Staying Connected with Family

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Last week, I shared with you guys about getting ready to say goodbye to my grandfather. He was one of the first people to instill in me that family was one of THE  most important things in life. It’s something to this day that I cherish every single moment

When I was younger, I lived in Savannah, Georgia. About 99% of my family lives or lived in this area. During this time my life was filled with LOTS of family get togethers! We would celebrate holidays, birthdays, and life at my grandparents’ house. He lived in that house for over forty years. It was the house that my mother and aunts grew up in, and when I lived with him briefly during high school, it became a house that I grew up in too.

My sister and nephew at her wedding.

Each year my grandparents would have Christmas at their house. They had a separate formal living room, and they would always have the most AMAZING live Christmas trees in there. Each year we would turn on the holiday music, bring out the decorations, and decorate the tree as a family! It’s still to this day one of my favorite traditions that I do with my family.

One of the funniest memories I have about holidays is a story involving a little brown paper package. My grandfather was a superior court judge in Georgia, and sadly knew a lot of the judges and lawyers that received package bombs back in the 80s and 90s. One day a small brown paper package showed up at his home as well.

The package looked just like the packages that had been sent, and it was from a similar region as to where they had been coming from. It was something that I am looked like a really serious situation.

Never one to throw caution to the wind, my grandfather called the police. SWAT descended on the house in drones. News Crews were lined up and down the street. It looked like a bad episodes of Cops on Lehigh Avenue.

It took several hours for them to delicately investigate this mysterious parcel. There were bomb suits and xray machines, and when all was said and down they finally had an answer.

My parents with my “little” brother at med school graduation.

After hours of investigating, the police were finally able to let my family know what they had found. We waited with baited breath as they passed the news to my grandfather.

After speaking with law enforcement, he slowly strolled up to my grandmother to share what horrors laid inside that brown paper package. He turned and let her know  “Helen, it was your GOD DAMN Christmas Bells!”

My grandmother had ordered some hanging bells that played songs, and they just happened to have arrived in a small brown paper package. To this day it’s a story that I love to tell because it’s totally something that would happen to me.

 

My beautiful niece, Grace

 

It’s been decades since I have lived in Savannah, and my parents and siblings are spread all across the country. Family is still really important, but it takes some figuring out how to stay in touch.

My family has used Skype in order to share memories and stay connected despite living all over the place. My kids have used it to get science lessons with their honorary Aunt Katherine that lives in Seattle. My mom and dad have used Skype to “attend” my neice’s 1st birthday party even though they were four states away.

Though we are all on our own adventures, with great programs like Skype, we have found new ways to recreate our own family get togethers even though we now live thousands of miles apart. It’s truly something that I cherish and has made the distance between seem not that big of a deal anymore!

Want to learn more about Skype?  Check out this amazing video! Warning you will need tissues: