I’ve taken advantage of my kids getting older – sleeping in til 8:30 a.m., day drinking, and sleeping without a shirt on.
Now that the evenings of endless, albeit fun, sports and activities have waned and the kids want to spend more time with their friends, my husband’s and my schedules have opened up. One benefit is I’ve found I want to connect with my extended family more.
I come from good Catholic Minnesota farmer stock. My father has eight siblings on his side and my mother has seven. I had 23 cousins on my dad’s side (me the oldest and a good two decades between me and the youngest) and we in turn spawned another two dozen chitlins.
Us older cousins ran around our grandparents’ playing games and forming “clubs,” ones that would only convene three times a year at Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. As I got older and more children were added to the clan I always joked that if any of the younger ones walked by me on the street (and let’s face it about that line – who really is ever walking down a street, especially since 90-percent of us Minnesotans drive everywhere) but because of the huge difference in age I wouldn’t recognize any of them let alone remember their names.
A year ago I thought it all should change.
Dreaming up a reunion of sorts, I took to organizing an all-cousin happy hour. What could be better than mixing young and old with a wine, craft beers, and shared flatbread?
Last night was our third gathering. And it was amazing.
Spouses and SO’s are invited, as well, and one cousin – 30-something Johnny, brought his 7-month-old. I got to hold a second cousin (or is it first cousin once removed?? I NEVER understand that shit) but I had to fight my (first) cousin Mark for him. Happiness, anyone??
Oh, and we do invite our Aunt Lana, the only girl of my dad’s siblings to our events and the only one of the above generation allowed to attend. In her former lives Lana was a nun and later a nanny for a high-profile race car driver out east. Since our own grandmother and matriarch of the family passed awday several years ago, Lana has taken to be the pseudo-Nana, sending out birthday, Valentine, and Halloween cards to us, the cousins, and now, the grand-cousins, with the requisite crisp $1 bill tucked inside.
Next step: What’s even better than one generation coming together? Getting the next – my kids and cousins’ kids – in on the mix(ed drinks).
49 and Counting 