Knowing family

So I grew up in a big family, and my sister said to me today, "... and you know me..." and went on about her story. That got me thinking. I don't really know my own sister anymore, or any of my siblings for that matter. When I say know, I mean know who they've become. I talk to them but I don't see them but once a year for a few days. To know someone is to know the changing person. That can only be through longer interaction. Seeing choices made, situations dealt with. That is, to see the person they are becoming/are. Not to say a person is their actions but that does seem to be something closest relating to who someone is, in the way I'm defining it (in my head anyway for this instance)
The trouble with siblings is that as we grow older they sort of stay the same, maybe grow at 1/10 their actual development in our lives that they do in their own. We miss out on so many changes. I'm trying to understand in my head how to resolve this.

I'll start by trying harder to listen to what they actually saying and not listen for them to reinforce the stereotype of them I have in my head. I've seen that mistake in others and never thought it was also the plank in my own eye. Hard to say you don't know someone as close to you as a brother, but I think it takes strength to say it and to try to accept that, and open your mind back up to a new person.

I'll say this, family, what is that strong and strange tie that links us together?