Cousin Love

When I was growing up I didn't see my cousins very regularly. Most years we saw each set of cousins at least once a year, but I didn't have the experience that some have of living very close to their cousins and getting together regularly. My dad's sister lives on Long Island (NY) and has three kids (Vanessa is two years older than me, Kurt is my age, and Brent is younger than me), and most years we would see them at a major holiday such as Thanksgiving. My mom's sister lived in Roanoke (VA) while we were growing up and she had eight children - Katrina is my age, three cousins are older than me, and four cousins are younger than me. We saw them every Christmas (alternated whether they came to our house or we went to theirs), and we often spent time together for maybe a week in the summer. My dad had a more distant cousin who lived in Virginia Beach and had three children, and we often spent time with them in the summer. After we started going away to college, the visits became fewer and farther between until the weddings

began. My dad was the only one from our family who attended Vanessa's wedding because she got married in Europe, but most of us attended most of the other cousin's weddings (three of my fourteen cousins aren't married). It has been more than ten years since we've attended a cousin's wedding, which means I haven't seen most of my cousins in that many years. The most recent time I saw a cousin was when one of my distant cousins came to visit me in the hospital in 2012. Although my cousins didn't seem to be too close to us in Maryland, in reality they were a lot closer (in NY and VA) than most of my kids' cousins are to them now (Chicago and Turkey). They usually see my sister Wendy's kids once or twice a year (Christmas and sometimes in the summer). Sometimes we go years in between visits with Yvonne's kids, but we are looking forward to them spending a little over 5 months in the US in the very near future.

Nadia and Ian definitely enjoy spending time with their cousins. Oliver does interact with Grace (who turned 15 months old today). Both Ian and Nadia want to play with Adam. Nadia also loves to play with Susie and Rachel. Although technically Rachel should have gone in Ian's Sunday School today, she went in Nadia's, and the two girls are sleeping together tonight. I'm so glad that they have had more than a week to spend together, and I hope that in the years to come they will feel a special bond with their cousins. Nadia and Ian also have cousins on Paul's side of the family, but they are much older than them (18 and 19 at the moment). On my side of the family they currently have 10 cousins and one more is due to arrive in October. When that one is born, they will have eight cousins who are under the age of eight on my side of the family!