(Picture taken from pacificreader.com; it was the best one in google images when I searched for "power outage")

One evening a few weeks ago, our power went out.  This isn’t unusual where we live, but normally the power is restored within a few (or sometimes several) minutes.

This time, the power outage was on wider scale, and it took several hours for the power to come back on.  Side note:  if you go to bed before power is restored, be sure to turn off all the light switches, especially your bedroom, unless you want to be wakened in the middle of the night when the power comes back on.

Since we could not watch TV, use the computer, or spend time individually doing things that we normally do, we actually had some quality time together as a family.  All four of us were on our bed, talking, joking, and playing 21 questions (whch was really more like 200 questions) for a few hours.  The whole time we were thinking that the power would come back on any second, but we finally went to bed quite late while the power was still off.

It is easy enough to turn off the TV or the computer and spend time doing things together, so why don’t we?  That hour or two where we had no distractions will be one of my all-time favorite memories.  Is there any TV show or anything on the internet that could be as important as really enjoying one another’s company?

I don’t think our family is much different than most.  It seems like each family member has their own agenda, and it rarely is to set aside time to talk and really be together without distractions.  I am looking forward to the next big power outage (or maybe we can break old habits and replace them with better ones!).