My grandma just turned 89.To celebrate, she wanted to come up and spend the holiday with us in Pennsylvania.My grandma was born, raised, and lived in Western PA for more than 60 years before eventually retiring and moving to Florida.

I’m used to having my parents and me living in the house. Having her there is definitely a different experience. Sure, she’s been there over the years, but never when I was there at the same time. I was always at school, working, or out doing something with friends and the like. Now that I’m older and my friends have mostly moved away, I’m reminded of what it’s like to have her here.

Maybe it’s really old school, but I consider myself really lucky to have a family like this. We’re very small; it’s just my grandma, parents, and a few relatives on my Mom’s side. Regardless of how people get along, there’s one thing I have to say: families should be a team.

This means that they should work together to get a job done. There shouldn’t be any “What can I get out of this?”. We’re all working toward the same goal. Sadly, this doesn’t happen, sometimes.

Kids sometimes roll their eyes when a grandma or grandpa tries to offer a lesson, and I’ve been thinking this over while I’m on my winter break. Here’s my take. My grandma’s 89 years old and in pretty good health, but let’s face it. She won’t be around forever. That may sound cold, but it’s true. Humans don’t live forever, and even if she lives ten more years, that’s all I have with her.

We should enjoy the time we have with our families while we’re young and at home and while they’re still with us. When they tell us something that we maybe already know (or think we know), they’re trying to help us not make the same mistakes they did when they were our age.

It’s just something to think about going forward into 2017. Let’s not start the year off with how much we don’t like a certain family member or how “she and I don’t get along.” Let’s enjoy family during this holiday season and beyond.