Keeping extended family always present in our lives

We just had a class where we were discussing how people can keep extended families alive and real in kids lives...and one of the things that came up...which I really liked was telling stories. We all talk about our families in the house, but I wonder how may of us use stories as much as we could in our lives?

Since my inlaws were here last year, we introduced them to all our friends...and now they have become a part of our conversations so much. My inlaws tell us about all the family and stories about what is going on with them. And we tell them about all our friends and all the things that we do with them and things that are happening with them. And that not only gives us common things to talk about, it also tells us that each other is well and is being taken care of even if we are not there to do it ourselves. And when I have kids, it is all these stories that I will remember to tell them about their grandparents. And I have noticed that the more stories we tell about other people, the easier we find to tell them.

Think about our PS meetings, we tell so many stories about ourselves, about each other, etc during our meetings! I wonder if the sahelis have any suggestions on how we can do this more in our lives. In order to keep a little bit of home alive in this alien land.

Ashwini