Spending time with the cousins

Tonight we will go celebrate the 3rd birthday of my cousin Harper.  Her mom, Lisa and I are first cousins.  I have written before about my cousins, but they are definitely worth writing about more than once!!!

Some of the cousins grew up close to each other and we were lucky to be able to see each other quite often.  I’d consider them as close as siblings in some ways.  I love that my boys are getting to grow up close to their cousins, not only my niece and nephew, but also to my cousins’ children.  My parents always stressed how important spending time with family is .  When Dave and I first started dating, (we were in high school,) he came from a family that did not do a lot together as a family or extended family so I think when he first started joining our big Italian family celebrations, he was a bit overwhelmed…come to think of it, more than twenty-five years later… he might still be 🙂

We even try to stay close with our cousins who do not live here in New Jersey.  A few of them are in Nevada and the rest are in Alaska.  We don’t get to see them very often but when we do get together, the kids have a blast and we all just enjoy the opportunity to spend with one another.  All of my cousins are fairly close in age with only about ten years spanning us all and in there are ten of us so I am sure that helps keep us close.  Our spouses have all melded into the family and the kids range in age from my oldest who is almost 17 to the youngest who was born two months ago.  We haven’t met her  yet since she’s one of the cousins living in Alaska.

As the kids are getting older and busier with schedules, and traveling gets more expensive it is harder to see our cousins out West, but we are hoping to be able to have some sort of reunion very soon.  Our grandma turns 100 in just a year and a half – so if it doesn’t happen sooner, maybe that will be the time when her “dynasty” meets up all together.  There are 33 cousins through marriage and children so it will be a big fun get together when we finally make it happen!!

Tagged: big extended family, cousins, cousins as close as siblings, forever friends, happy birthday, italian family, spending time with cousins