I am probably with my family, almost all of them, at least once a week. Not all of them at the same time, but I usually see all of them fairly often because all seven of my children live within five miles of where I live. Six of seven of them are doing business together.
It means that we have a lot of time together. We get together, and then one of the families is assigned to give a discussion taken from the scriptures, and that varies according to what we feel. They’re the most important things that are needed at the current time, but each one is assigned the role of preparing that in advance, as well as preparing and bringing a treat for the whole family for that get-together.
We also remember the birthdays of everybody in the family. We talk about any activities that are going on and remind family members where those will take place and who’s invited to be there and participate.
During those meetings, we also try to make contact with those members of the family who don’t live close by, which are primarily the grandchildren. We also try to follow up with all of the missionaries in the family.
My parents and my siblings started having this get-together in 1979. We’ve been doing that as a family ever since. Families grow up and split apart, but our families have continued this tradition. Many of my brothers and sisters still do that with their families every month.
We have a lot of twins in our family. We had twin boys, and then two of our children had twins. Four of them were all born the same night and so worked out to be the same doctor.
Cole and Kelsey (Brook and Val’s twins) were born Friday evening at 8pm. Berkley and Brighton (Angie and Ryan’s twins) were born 6 hours later at 2am Saturday morning.
