C'uncles and C'aunts

Most of my husband's extended family lives in this area, or at least in this state, so he and his cousins still see each other frequently. We especially see his cousins on his father's side, because we all eat lunch together at their grandma's house every Sunday. We had to find some kind of title for the cousins of one's parents, because First-Cousin-Once-Removed is just too awkward and pedantic. We developed C'uncles and C'aunts, but we really only use C'uncles because C'aunts sounds too weird.

Zaya always sits with his C'uncle Luke on Sundays and makes just as many demands of him as he does of us, his parents. ie "Can I have some gravy?" "I need more Jello." "Is is time for dessert?" "Oh no! Where's a Kleenex?" It's been a lot of fun to let our children get to know our cousins, as well as their own. It's a little more difficult for my side, since we're all a bit more scattered, but even there we've been trying, because I have a fairly close relationship with all of my cousins... or I like to think so, anyway. A couple of them even read this blog, which is, in itself, a testimony to family love, because goodness knows I can ramble, like today.

Two things brought this to my mind recently. One was discovering that one of my own C'aunts has started reading my blog. Aftergrace is someone I've known about, and met, but not really known. I look forward to getting to know her better, because it's only fair now that she knows what my living room looks like and all my other mommy troubles. The other C'occasion was my Hubby's C'uncle E singing in our church yesterday. He doesn't attend our church, but he only lives about 15 miles away, yet we don't really know him, or his family, at all. As he and his wife were singing their special I told my husband, "Hey! He would be your C'uncle!" And we were a little bit sad that modern life tears families a bit farther apart than it has in times past. I hope we can do a little bit to repair that for my own children, and I'm glad for the assistance of cyberspace in that quest for our generation.

Picture: This is my husband and I pre- but near- kids. The blond in the very back is a C'aunt and the two tall guys on the right-hand side are C'uncles. The others are my husbands two sisters and brother.