Cousin Dinner, 2012

I can't believe I haven't blogged about one of my favorite nights of Christmas this year: Cousin Dinner.  We range in age from 31 to 15 and just about all of us are a rowdy good time on our own, but get us together and the laughter is epic.  It takes us all of 30 seconds to get back to where we left off.  With about half of us living out of the city, it is a rarity that we are all together at one time.  I'm not going to get all mushy about how much I love seeing them.  That would be totally weird, because that's not how we roll.  If I would get all mushy though, then I would explain how for the longest time it was me, then four boys.  While we had fun playing hide and go seek and taking over McDonald's play areas, I really wanted a sister or girl cousin. My grandmother would pray that I would get one girl in the family and, lo and behold, the next four cousins were girls.  Really awesome girls.  I loved it.  We have a great combination.  I'm so proud of each of my cousins!

The Highlights of the evening were:

{laughing as my little brother and younger cousin decide that there wasn't enough room at the "big table" and pulled up the kid table and chairs.}

{seeing Burl get that it was a time to be fun and rowdy}

{watching both my babies, mainly Fern, get totally absorbed with Alex, my youngest cousin.  They were so happy just sitting in her lap.}

{finding random pictures of funny faces on my camera after leaving it with the girl cousins}

{welcoming Whitney to the cousin club.  She's our second addition, the first being my John 9 years ago!  She brought me flowers and a handwritten card for hosting...love it!}

{snapping pictures of Burl feeding a noodle to the least receptive but very willing cousin}

{playing several crazy rounds of Pictionary and cracking up the whole time}

{my favorite: retelling the same stories we always do like it's the first time we've heard it.  and laughing the whole time!}

These cousins of mine, they're the best.  Hopefully, they enjoy the dinners as much as I do.  I can't wait until they're all here again so we can have another night to laugh!

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sidenote: I forgot to get photo cred on my last post.  Last week, my cousin, Abby, babysat while I got my hair did.  She helped herself to my camera and took a few pictures of little things about my house.  It was fun to see what she snapped.  It was more fun to hang out with her when I got home. ;)