Family is the most important thing in life and no one can deny it. It is also the strongest unit of society. Families can be different. For example one person’s family consists only of one parent; the other’s family consists of parents, grandparents, sisters, brothers and several cousins. The average family in our country consists of mother, father and two children. In my opinion, I’m lucky. I have a large family and we all live in the same two-storey detached house. My name is Vlad. I have parents, grandparents, two brothers and a sister. One of my cousins, my uncle’s daughter, is also currently staying with us. Besides we have some pets: a dog, two cats and a hamster.

Our house is located in the suburbs of Moscow, but me and my siblings study in the city. Both my brothers are older than me, but my sister is younger. She is only five and we all pamper her. I’m 15, my brothers are 18 and 20. Our cousin Lena is almost my age. Her mother died after continuous illness two years ago and her father works under contract in Hungary. My mum drives us every morning to school and my little sister to the nursery. Our parents work in Moscow downtown. My mum is a qualified pharmacist and my father is a bank manager. They seem to like their occupations. 
When I grow up I want to become a pilot. My father says I need to train hard to become professional. Both my brothers study at the university. Andrey, who is 20, is going to be a physician; Denis, who is 18, is going to be a vet. My little sister says she’ll become a singer, although she might change her mind in teenage years. My cousin is going to be an accountant. My grandparents are retired. When they were younger, they were both doctors. They’ve met when they were students at the university and since then never parted. Now, when they have more free time, my grandfather likes working at his garden and my grandmother likes embroidering the patterns.

All in all, we are a friendly family. We respect discipline and family values. That’s why we try to be home for dinner and at weekends we spend lots of time together. Most of all I like our festive meals on special occasions, such as New Year, Easter, family members’ birthdays. At such days we have lots of guests over and our house becomes a real “melting pot”. Sometimes my parents take a vacation, when they get especially tired of us. As for pets, I think they are also happy to be the members of our family.