Some of my cousins, I only see once a year — at Thanksgiving or at New Years or at Fourth of July.

I've always found it interesting that I know these cousins well — or at least, I feel like I do. But in reality, I spend a limited number of hours with them each year.

Ever since I was little, I looked forward to the holidays. My grandma used to throw huge Christmas parties, and my mom would host New Years Eve parties. It was always extremely exciting for me to see family and friends.

But what's strange is to think of life jumping from holiday to holiday — one celebration to the next — uninhibited by the many struggles of daily life in between.

When I see my cousins at the holidays, a large fraction of my memories with them are from previous holidays. And yet, there we are — proceeding with the holiday at hand.

One thing I've noticed is that we tend to lose touch during the rest of the year. We don't really know what goes on in each other's daily lives. We keep in touch around the holidays, but that's the extent of it.

What's a typical day at work like for you? My grandmother asked this question to one of my older cousins last year. And that's all the information we'll get. We'll get an overview — the basics — but we really don't know what is happening day to day.

I would argue that's okay, though. Perhaps we don't need to know anything more.

Of course — we'll know about the big moments: the promotions, engagements and pregnancies.

If someone's engaged we'll assume they're doing well. If someone gets a promotion at work, we'll assume the same. And it always seems like enough. We're still close — if that makes sense. We unite at the holidays, and it seems we're all on the same page.

Another thing I noticed is that we tend to discuss the same types of things each year — and there isn't anything wrong with this either.

We share memories we have together — most of which occur at holidays and big events. But we also discuss things we have in common, and these things don't change too much — unless of course there's a new TV show we both binged and can now discuss.

Some of us go, or went, to the same school — at different times, of course. We know people in common — not that we gossip. We laugh at the same things from year to year. Our conversations take on a similar structure.

The last thing I noticed has to do with social media. It's a way for us to keep up with each other. My parents are not on Facebook, and most of my aunts and uncles are not either. But my cousins are — the young adults and kids. And perhaps we maintain relations this way without consciously realizing it.

We scroll through each other's photos on Instagram. We see their significant others, friends, vacations, aesthetic views, the list goes on.

Whether we choose to be that peson that drops the semi-awkward, Oh, I saw you went to Paris a few months ago. How was that?, or not, we can still keep up through these posts.

So perhaps social media bridges the gap between the holidays where we can come together for a few hours and actually talk.

As a final note, I find the time in between the holidays goes extremely quickly — not as it's happening, of course, but looking back.

When we're actually celebrating, we realize — even though we're not addressing each little thing that has happened in the last year — a lot has changed for everyone. We can look back to where our families, and ourselves, were, exactly one year ago at the same time.

So perhaps the holidays are, in actuality, our chance to reflect, to see how far we have come in the last year. And what's more — we can enjoy time with family, and relax too.

It is important to keep up, though, and this is what's difficult. However, perhaps, the more we keep in touch, whether it's through Facebook or Instagram — but preferably though a conservation — we can decrease the divide between the holiday events.

Alas, when we measure our lives in holidays, we can see how we've changed, how our families have changed, but also how we have maintained what we have in common year to year.