Last week I met up with a cousin I haven’t seen in over three years. She has boy/girl twins and an older daughter just like me. The last time the kids saw each other was the summer of 2006 when we were at the beach at the same time.

Since then, our schedules haven’t overlapped, that is until this Thanksgiving. It was amazing how quickly our kids jelled. We stopped by their house to say hello and after five minutes of awkwardness, the kids ran off to play. They spent the next day and a half together like they had always known each other.

My cousin’s oldest is a year younger then Maggie and her twins are a year younger than Lilly and Adam, but they all paired right up — Maggie and Claire, Lilly and Amy and Adam and Will.

My cousin and I had so much fun watching them. It made me hope that no matter how many years pass between visits, they will always have that special family bond.

I know my grandmother — who was a true matriarch in our family until she died at age 103 — was smiling down from heaven.