It is such a blessing to live less than an hour away from my brother and his family! (In addition, we were blessed to be able to host my other brother's kids for an extended visit last summer.) I did not grow up close to my extended family. I'm jealous of the relationship my kids have with their cousins. It is so fun to watch them together. It's also really awesome to be able to spend time with my nieces and nephews and dote on them. Being an Aunt is the best!
We try to do sleep-overs and kid swaps as often as we can. Whenever the kids come to our house, I take them out to the grocery store to stock up on candy and junk food. I'm not above bribing them to love me (though I prefer to say that I'm simply building fun memories.)
Lately our nephews have wanted to come spend the night so they can play hours and hours of video games with their Uncle.
Most recently, we had our oldest, teenage niece over for a couple nights for a Stranger Things marathon. That was especially awesome because we had a chance to talk about a couple serious topics. It felt really good to know that she was comfortable talking with me about things that other teens might be too embarrassed about.
I hope that I can always have this close relationship with my nieces and nephews. But even more than that, I hope my kids always consider their cousins to be their friends! They are so lucky to have these opportunities and I think one day they'll thank us for making it possible for them to hang out together so much!
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