How close is your family?

Close, of course, is a relative term, but I hope you can bring more concreteness to it. Does your family have well-attended gatherings? Or do you practically have to kidnap people to get them together? Or are they spread out all over the place so it’s hard to get together?

Once you’ve helped define the term “close” by using real examples, I’d like to know why you think your family gathers as often and as fully as it does. Where does the tradition come from? How can you explain why it is the way it is?