Cousins

You know the movie, My Big Fat Greek Wedding? There's this part where Nia Vardalos' character is going on and on about how big and crazy her family is and how many first cousins she has, 27. I have something like 25. Add in myself and my siblings, and there's 28 grandkids altogether. I have first cousins that I've never met. The way my family likes to give people up for adoption, I probably have more that I don't even know about. Our trip to Ohio afforded me the opportunity to see some of my cousins again. On my dad's side of the family anyway.

It was almost a surreal experience for a group of us to get together and go out for drinks. The majority of my memories and interactions with my cousins are from family get togethers while we were growing up. Being the second oldest grandchild, I have cousins who are still teenagers which is weird. It's hard for me to even think of them as first cousins. They're more like nieces and nephews.

Still, while in Ohio, we were able to get a group of us together and go out for drinks. There was my cousin J and his wife, my cousin D, my cousin K and her husband, and my cousin M and the Mister. Between the five of us cousins, we live in three different states. Going out was so much fun that I wish we lived closer so that it's something we could do more often. We reminisced about family holidays and summer vacations spent at my grandparent's house as well as catching up on our current lives. For being so closely related, we are a diverse bunch.

I wish I had thought to get pictures. Who knows the next time that I will see any of them. I can hope that it won't be another 13 years and that it won't be because of a funeral.