Having Fun with Cousins

The word “cousin” can be used in many different ways, all of which express an especially close kinship.  When I think of cousins, I think of a huge library of memories from my childhood.  Both of my parents are one of four siblings.  In total, I have eighteen cousins, almost all of them lived in the same town as I did growing up.  You can imagine how fun the holidays were when we brought the different clans together.

It has been a different experience for Ethan, since we’ve lived in different cities than all of his cousins.  I have one brother and Jen has a brother and stepsister, each with children.  At current count, Ethan has seven cousins, who he has seen only for small stretches of time broken up over his seven years.  

Over Labor Day weekend, Jen, Ethan, and I traveled to Omaha for one of my younger cousin’s wedding.  Claire is particularly close to us, since I used to babysit her and her two brothers.  In fact, she was a junior bridesmaid in our wedding almost ten years ago.  

The Soon-to-Be Mrs. Claire Osborne

Her mom is my dad’s sister, so this wedding was a great gathering of the Henderson side of the family.  Because my older cousins on this side live in California, my brother and I have served the role as the oldest cousins to the six younger cousins.  These were the little ones Kelly (my brother) and I would dominate in basketball, wrestling, backyard football, and anything else.  

It was pretty interesting for me to see all six of them grown up now.  Claire is the second youngest and the youngest, Cliff, is starting his sophomore year in college.  Now, we were comparing life’s notes (can’t believe Jeff has already been married five years!) and we’re rediscovering each other as adults.  Those Cisar boys can sure whoop it up on the dance floor – was Cliff even alive when Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” was hot?

Not only did Ethan get to be with my cousins, but he had good times with his own cousins, too.  Kasia and Kiera (my brother’s daughters) were at the wedding festivities.  Kiera is about six months older than Ethan so in the four times they’ve been together in their lives, they have become fast friends.  It was fun walking outside on the veranda of the wedding banquet to find the two of them sitting at their own table just talking like seven-year-olds can.  

Liam, His Mom, and Aunt Jen

We also met his two youngest cousins for the first time when we visited Jen’s brother, Rob, and his wife, Janna.  Liam and Duncan are about 18 months apart, so we had fun playing with the mobile Liam, and holding Lil’ Dunc.  You better believe we snapped tons of photos and shot plenty of video.  We were fortunate to see them again just a week later when they drove thru Indianapolis to rendezvous with her family from Ohio.

Being in Omaha also gave Ethan a chance to see all of his grandparents and two of his living great grandparents, but that’s another post all by itself.  His

Great Grandpa and Great Grandma as Photographed by Ethan

 great grandparents have developed an amazingly strong bond with Ethan, despite only have spent a total of maybe four hours together in his lifetime.  

Seeing everyone again made me realize the great memories I have from my childhood.  It’s inspired me to launch a new social network through the Ning.com platform for my family to stay better connected.  Since I’m the Keeper of the Family History, too, I figure this will give me a great way to pull memories and life events for the genealogical record.

It also makes me think about how Ethan’s experience has been so different from mine.  I know we each have different things that shape us during our lifetimes and that our children won’t have the same experience as us.  But with all the fun he has with his cousins and the sadness he gets when he has to leave them, I wonder about it.

So what has your relationship with your cousins been like?  All great memories, terrible memories, or no memories?