Christmas Card Follow-Up

As you may know, I was gone most of my break.
Today, I finally tackled all the mail in my mailbox
(Currently, since my Christmas tree is blocking my back door,
I have to tromp through my snowy yard to get to the mailbox on the side of the building).
I carried the bundle of 2-weeks worth of mail inside,
happy to discover many Christmas cards, newsletters, and magazines.

As I opened each letter, my smile grew.
If you remember, I sent out a select few Christmas cards this year,
after almost not finding time again to do it.
See Across the Abyss claim:  Day 126

I was excited to see that my grandma ("Gram") had written me back!
I haven't seen her in over 16 years!
Her hand written letter made me smile,
and a connection to her stirred up within me.
When I got to the closing, she left me with this question:
"Did you know that you have a cousin living in Chicago?"
I couldn't believe it!
You see, my relatives on my dad's side are not close,
geographically or any other way.
I've only met my dad's siblings one time (when I was 12),
and have always wanted relatives close by.
I called my dad right away--he didn't know who it was either.
How neat it will be to find out who it is and hopefully visit them!
I had no idea that sending a simple Christmas card would bring this!

Lesson: when you give, you are given back 100 fold