Journal #49 - Family

I spend a lot of time with my family because they are important to me. Until I could drive, I spent a lot of time doing things with my family such as playing games with them and going out to eat with them. Ever since my brother has gone to college, we have done even less stuff together. My brother, Andrew, goes to college up at Augustana in Rock Island. My dad is an accountant for RSM Mcgladrey and my mother is an RN at Memorial Medical Center. My favorite times of the year is in fact the holiday season because of all of my cousins that I get to see. We usually meet up at my aunt or uncles house down in St. Louis or in Chicago. We usually have amazing meals because everyone in my family has been trained to cook like my grandma. We celebrate Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Easter together. In all three of these holidays we always have huge feasts. I have many cousins, but I am the youngest on my mom's side and the the second youngest on my dad's side. I have cousins that are 33, 30, 28, 29, 35, 26, and 19. Those are on my mom's side. Then on my dad's side I only have cousins that are 20, 16, and 25. They live up in Chicago. I have always been far away from the ages of my cousins, so I can not relate to many of them. One of my cousins is a sucessful Anesthesiologist and he is married to a doctor. When he was a high schooler, he was also an all state golfer. I also have a cousin that is currently attending Truman State College in Missouri. The cousins on my dad's side include a graduate of Virginia, a current student at Dennison College where he plays tennis, and a high schooler that is a very good volleyball player. My extended family is very close because we get to see each other many times throughout the year. We even take a special vacation every year down to the Ozarks with my mom's side of the family. We spend time on the lake and we also get to use their boat. My family has given me a lot of great times.