My husband has a lot of first cousins. I counted them up once; including those who have passed away, he has over 50 first cousins. Both of his parents came from large families, eight and ten children. And almost all of them had children.
The cousins on his father's side created a cousins' club years ago. When I joined the family (40-something years ago) they were having family club get-togethers every month or two. That fell by the wayside, I'm not sure why. Now there's an annual picnic in the summer. It's a boisterous group so get-togethers are a lot of fun.
As an aside, that side of my husband's family welcomed me with open arms and a lot of teasing.
In my family, I have two first cousins. We didn't grow up together, as my family moved away from them when I was 6 years old. We only saw them on occasional trips back. They live 2,000 miles away. Because of political differences they do not talk to me anymore. I'm okay with that, especially as I have all these cousins-by-marriage.
I'm thinking of cousins today because one of my husband's cousins has made it his mission to keep family ties strong. We get together with him and his wife every other month for dinner in a nice restaurant. We have a date with them tonight, trying out a new restaurant. I am sort of an extreme introvert. My special talent is listening. (I tell people if I were on Star Trek, I would be from Guinan's home planet, the planet of listeners.) But when I am out with the two of them, I talk - a lot.
So - good food, good conversation, a chance to relax and catch up.
Like you, I have only a few cousins, but the ones I have are pretty special. I just came back from visiting one of them in California!
ReplyDeleteHow fun! That is one nice thing about relatives in other places -- sometimes you can visit and enjoy a different city.
DeleteIt is always nice to get together with family. Neither Kathy nor I come from large families so we don’t have family reunions. It is nice to have a dinner date where you can sit back, enjoy a good meal, and each other’s company.
ReplyDeleteYes! We always look forward to going out with these two. And hopefully we'll be able to go to the family picnic this summer.
DeleteArjeha wrote the above comment.
ReplyDeleteI hope this dinner brought you everything you hoped for. What a cool thing to inherit a lively, fun, group of cousins-by-marriage. And how wonderful that they bring out the extrovert within. It is an awesome thing to become part of a great(er) family.
ReplyDeleteWe had a lovely time catching up. The food was so-so, but the conversation was lively.
DeleteHow wonderful is this cousins' club, and that someone "made it a mission" to keep the ties strong. I so admire this in families - perhaps because cousin-closeness is lacking in mine. I so understand the situation with yours....and, like you, my husband's bighearted family has become mine. Wouldn't trade it for the world. Also - 50 cousins!! Incredible!
ReplyDeleteI also love this closeness in his family. And it's a fun closeness, though there are disagreements, etc. It is a large group of people after all. There is also a LOT of good-natured teasing, which I experienced when I started dating my now husband.
Delete