Day 16

More cousins were added today. I'm cooking up a scheme to get every member of the family here at Christmas, but for today we had 11 cousins. Well, one of them is the mother of two of the others, and not their cousin. Is that confusing? She is the oldest cousin and her two kids are some of the youngest ones. Still unclear?   4 of the 11 were second cousins. (I know, this picture is missing one.) My parents have 5 children, 11 grandchildren, and 7 great-grandchildren. Some of us are spread out across the country farther than we want to be. But days like this are so fun!

There was a lot of hide and seek today, teens hiding with younger ones or hiding together. Wait, maybe they were playing Sardines. If you don't know what that is, read Day 10. They finally counted the fish tank marbles too. Grandma told them they hadn't been in the tank, but I think some of them were still skeptical. There were over 500, I think. And they wore out the batteries on the "chasing the light" game. More music and more eating too!

My mom even got to have cousin time today! She and her cousin's wife went out and got lost looking for a different post office than the one Mom uses. They were gone a very long time, but they had fun together. Her cousin and his wife are in town cleaning out their father's (my mom's uncle's) house that just got sold. Here's a picture of their father's family when he was a baby (he's the youngest). My grandpa is the one in the middle with all the hair! I'd recognize that hair anywhere! I don't know how old he was, but I'm guessing about 8.


My brother and his family are leaving tomorrow. It's so hard to see them go. It was such a nice week. Sometimes I wish time would slow down and let me enjoy it a little longer.

I guess we'll be back to school tomorrow too. We need to start on the description of Bubby. I think a little freewriting is in order. All my writing is free. I hope the kids can catch the vision of that. Just say it, then go back and clean it up. Easy!

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See you tomorrow!