[DianaB]

I'm sorry that you're sad about your husband's family not getting together any more. I think that you should call them and let them know that you'd still like for them to come anyway. Hopefully some will still come but don't get upset with those that can't because we all have things that can come up and keep us from getting together.

After my grandparents died I thought that we probably wouldn't be seeing my aunts and cousins very much since we're all scattered over 5 states but my Mom and her sisters try to get the family together at least once a year.

For one, the girls (my Mom has 5 sisters) all take a sister's vacation with their husbands once a year. Sometimes it's a really nice vacation and sometimes it's just staying at one of their homes and shopping.

Two, one of my aunts invites the whole family to her home for Thanksgiving every other year. She has a large home and some take campers or she has a couple of children nearby that we can stay with. Some years we go and some years we don't because it's quite a drive for us.

Three, we have a weekend on Tablerock lake with whoever can come. That's what we did for our vacation and then went to Branson. It ended up that it was mostly Mom and her sisters with a couple of their cousins went. None of my first cousins were there but a couple of distant cousins were but next time it could be different.

We're a pretty close family and I really think that it's because my Mom and her sisters have chosen to keep the family close. Maybe you can come up with a day other than Thanksgiving to get together. Good luck.