so good to be home!

We arrived back in sweet Virginia on Friday for a long weekend with family.  There are few places I love more than my parents’ living room with my sisters, brother, parents, hubby, and baby around me.  Oh, and Sona, our 15-year-old (!) puppy, who somehow weaseled her way onto the rug… again.

For a few days, many members of our family were back together for just a little while.  Emily and Julia back from college, Eric over for dinner after a long week of work, my grandparents in town to visit, Elliott reunited with everyone after his year-long deployment.*  These moments are rare and precious, I realize now, and I treasure them.  We belong together, yes, and we are family, but we’re all making our own roads into the world now, and none of my siblings live at home full-time anymore. 

Now Elliott and I have our own little family with each other and Lena, and yet in the process of forming our own family, our parents and siblings have become more dear than ever.  I’m already looking forward to Thanksgiving.  And then to having all my family come visit us in Sicily over Christmas, too, and introducing them to our new lives across the Atlantic!

*Yes, Elliott’s deployment ended in July… but after a year away and missing out on these family gatherings, it always feels precious and unique to have him home again!