Feeling a little grumpy and sarcastic yet happy

It is interesting (and wonderful) to me how many of our friends and family have moved away for various reasons only to return to home. Don't take this the wrong way-- I LOVE to have them back, most of the reasons they give are family. Either wanting to be closer or wanting the kids to be by cousins and Grandparents. What is the big deal about family? If you live by no family there is no pressure. For starters you don't have to have some sort of difficult rotating schedule for holidays, your moms, my mom, your mom. You also don't have jealously between the 2 families. There is no competition, because there is no one to compete with. If tired, there is no one to guilt you into still coming over. For all the holiday's you can sit home all by your lonesome. You can feel unconnected. You can feel alone. OR you can create a family out of friends, which is awesome but you still want a family of your own. Yeah-- I have to agree that having family is much preferable to having none. I recently had someone say that is pathetic to love your family, that you should instead get a life. That there is a ruler for love and some love is just plain old too much. What if you believe that a major key to happiness in this life and the next is family? Well-- that throws a wrench in the works. There are advantages to not loving family. Say if they die, it doesn't hurt. If you don't get to see them often- you don't care anyways because you don't even like them, if you don't care. No gifts to buy or money to spend. I can see that there are two sides to this coin, but one seems more a method of defense from pain. I had another friend say that it is the relationships in life that give it meaning and that the pain is well worth it. The whole "it is better to have loved and lost than to have not loved at all". In my heart and mind the jury is still out.
The up side for me of "the pull of family and the nice quality of life" where I live is people are coming home:). The latest are Hope and Bret and Brooke and Nathan:) I have not seen Hope's new baby yet and having them closer makes it way easier. I got to be with Brooke's baby last night. We had a great time laughing. They are a darling family and Jonah is brilliant I fear, a challenge for the best parent. A darling yet precocious child. They have a beautiful home with an unbeatable view. What a cute little family. They have always been great to spend time with, Nathan is great to tease, Brooke loves Disney as much as me, and we always have a good topic to debate-- plus they are excellent cooks!