Monday, December 20, 2010

Extended Family. It's Peculiar.

Santa Claus with a little girlI have no idea who these people are (okay, I know who Santa is, duh!), but there is an off chance they could be distant cousins or something. Image via WikipediaThe countdown is on to Christmas and, if you are like my children, you have it timed down to the stroke of 6am, the wake Mommy and Daddy up hour, on December 25th. Last minute Christmas gifts need to be purchased and wrapped, crocheting needs to be finished, cookies need to be baked (because we ate most of the ones we made already), mulled wine needs to be drunk, and Mommy needs to slow the heck down and enjoy this week. I think after a glass of above mentioned mulled wine, Mommy will be slooooowed down indeed.

We kicked off the week today with one son still in his three day grounded status and a family Christmas party. As I sat at the party this afternoon, and looked around the room, I realized extended family is a very peculiar thing.

Now, please, don't get me wrong. I love them all. But....most of them I don't even know. I'm not kidding you, there were people there I didn't even know, and I've been in this family all my life. (ha!) I don't know where most of my cousins work or even what they do. That's sad because we are not a big family. It's funny, we all get together, but each family sits together....there is really very little mingling. And we've been doing it that way for so long, I don't think we even mind anymore. Peculiar.

Now my aunts and uncles and parents make a supreme effort to talk with everyone, but us cousins and second and third cousins? We didn't get the mingling genes.

I find it utterly peculiar that I could spend three hours in a small room with people with whom I am related and still no nothing about them. Me....the one whose curiosity has led her to meet roofers in Scotland and cops in Florida and roller derby fanatics in California. And yet I don't even know my cousin Andy's girlfriend's son name....or how Andy has even been in the last year. It's sad really.

Maybe next year I should try to muster up some mingling mojo and see what happens. Who knows? By 2020 I might even know everyone's names.



P.S. - I am so scheduling this post to run instead of publishing it right away, because I'm hiding my bedtime. Oh, yes, I am. =D
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2 comments:

Dru'el the Chaotic said...

mmmm.. mulled wine. last New Year's Eve, we made some Swedish Glögg , and had 2 bottles left over. we opened up a bottle on Friday to fortify our cleanup / present wrapping. we were going to bring the 2nd bottle with us to our family gathering, but it was too tasty to share :]

Merry Christmas to the entire GymMama family

Sue Barnfield said...

'Mingling' is not all it's cracked up to be you know!
I've heard it can be quite dangerous and detrimental to your general health and well-being.
Far better to consume mulled wine/eat cake/enjoy company of loved ones who are within a 2 foot radius/chill in front of favourite I-thingy ... sounding good so far??
You know I'm right don't you?
Love Sue x x x x