Me, Alex, Manda, Addie and SydSo ... my cousins are amazing. I've always been close to cousins on my mom's side. We spend every holiday together. Whittney, Danielle and I were always dressed alike. We grew up together and did everything together, but our personalities have always been so different! Now that the younger ones are older, I find myself spending all my time with the 13-19 year olds! They are so much fun! We play games, go sledding, ride 4-wheelers, ride ice blocks down hillsides ... just fun stuff! I love each holiday spent with them and all the activities we always have planned. I especially love that we can just make each other laugh! We are silly, and witty, and oftentimes inappropriate, but that just makes life so much fun! I got to spend Thanksgiving with these crazies, and I'll be back in just a couple of days for Christmas! Woo Hoo!
In the car with our energy cans-o-nasty. I gotta get hyped up for this!
Every year after Thanksgiving, the moms wake up at o-butt-thirty to go shopping. It's just bad news. The throw elbows at Walmart and hold each other places in line at Target. As much as I LOVE shopping, I've never been interested in this mess. A couple of years ago, Kimball came to Grandma's house for Thanksgiving with me. The day after Thanksgiving, we got up EARLY to get a digital camera at Circuit City. They were sold out within 30 seconds of the store opening. We didn't get one. We came back home and went to bed. I'm NOT a morning person! This year, the South Town mall in Sandy opened at midnight the day after Thanksgiving! I AM a night person! My 18-year-old cousin, Sydney asked if I wanted to go shopping with her. Heck yes! I figured we'd be home and in bed by 2. We stopped at a gas station to by Satan's nectar (No Fear caffeine energy drinks) to sustain us for a couple of hours. A couple of hours?! Yeah. We were there until 5:30 a.m.! People are CRAZY who does this?! I did. And it was fun. But sheesh! The best part of the whole night was when we stepped into Maurices at 12:00 ... I was helping Sydney find some cute outfits. I'm in Utah. I know noone. I'm not even looking at people, just trying to stay out of everyone's way. I come around a corner and who do I find?! My cousin's wife, Pauline! She's a Silvester! Wrong side of the family! What is SHE doing there? They'd been living in Boise and just moved to Saratoga Springs the week before. I knew that. I just didn't expect to see her at the mall after midnight! Crazy/excited reunion in Maurices! I LOVE those kinds of surprises!
Me and Pauline in Maurices at midnight thirty!!
Other great cousins? I have not always been close to my Silvester side. My dad has all brothers and brothers aren't great at family relations. I grew up playing in the sandbox with Shane and Trevor, and succeeding at ditching Courtney in the kitchen with Grandma. (I was never a cookie-baking kind of girl!) But since the internet took over the world I've had better contact with a lot of them! For a long time, Heather and I knew everything about everything in each other's lives. Amanda can always be counted on for witty conversation and genetic dysfunction affirmation. (It's okay. I do that, too. Must be genetic.) And Jen has started an amazing blog with letters from our grandpa to grandma written in the 1940's when he was away at war. I love this heritage, and I love reading about it! If you want to take a look, check out the "My Dearest, My Darling" link on the right. I had to change the name of my blog to a line I pulled from one of Grandpa's letters. (It's okay. I do that, too. Must be genetic.) Family rocks!
And so does snow. And Santa. I got a taste of both this last week, and I'm loving it!
Huzzah.
We found Santa just walking down the street!
I had some time to kill-- and the snow was calling my name!
You make me miss family - thanks! We're going to be in SLC for Christmas, so not knowing what you have going on, we'd love to play. Okay, probably not as well as the younger cousins, but maybe we can take a lesson from then and ignore the freezing child and just PLAY!!! And I love that you know Pauline. I don't think I could recognize her if my life depended on it - although with the picture, I might be okay if I had a small line-up.
ReplyDeleteThat was fun seeing each other!! I thought I was the only crazy person that would go to the mall at midnight. That was a very long night. I got home at 3am then I left for Walmart at 4am. I didn't get any sleep.
ReplyDeleteI agree with amanda, I probably would only recognize Silvester and not her... lol Christmas makes me really lonely for my family... funny how you can have so many around and no one knows you, guess that's what happens when you're the 'old' cousins....
ReplyDeleteI thought that line looked familiar, but I am woefully underslept this morning and missed the connection. Duh!
ReplyDeleteI am enjoying these virtual family reunions. We don't live close to many people. But, I did just find Uncle Bob on Facebook (through Jeff). Maybe we can get everybody on board.
It's true - there are many cousins and wives and I have either not seen in way too many years or never even met. We'll have to work on that.
Jen
Hey, we're in IF until the second of January. I think Ashley is in your parents' ward. She's not a Laurel though. She's like 19.
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