Catching up with family

One thing I like about this time of year is catching up with Aunt Gay and Uncle Joe. Since they got home right before Christmas, we’ve had dinner with them three or four times – most recently at Chopstix, surprisingly not closed for the holidays this year.

And I’m already looking forward to Jag and Antony coming down for New Years, speaking of catching up with family. Family of choice, that is — friends who become family. I love that they come down to ring in the new year with us.

Continuing in that vein, last night we had dinner and some good social time with some friends who moved away a while ago. They’re the kind of friends that even though they’ve lived far away for a while, it felt totally natural to look up and see them in the room – it was as if they’d never left. I think being online a lot makes people seem less far away, especially when they post minutia of the day… being stuck in traffic, the barista messing up their coffee order, videos of babies first steps… things like that make far-flung friends and family feel closer.