Monday, June 25, 2007

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.

5 comments:

aftergrace said...

You are right! The powers of Cyberspace can be used for good!! I'm so thankful we have all re-connected. I am honored to be a viewer of your blog (even when witnessing messy living areas!)
Best wishes on moving day.
your Ce'aunt (a little French touch)

Qtpies7 said...

We rarely see our cousins. Donnie's we see every year at the family reunion for his dad's side, his mom's side almost never, weddings and funerals. My family, same thing, weddings and funerals. I keep in touch with some a little bit, one through blogging, and one through occasional emails.
I pretty much think my family are all lunatics, so keeping my kids away from that is important. My kids just sit there and stare at them they are so crazy, and you need earplugs.

It would be nice to be close to them again, though. I miss it, but its just too much for my kids to see that all the time.

But, we too, call the cousins aunts and uncles, the close ones, anyways.

Anonymous said...

Too Cute! We have huge families. Gabriel has some 80-90 cousins. And I have 60 some on my side. I don't even know how many second cousins my kids have.

JAM said...

Good stuff! Your sibling in laws and husband have almost the same eyes; that was the first thing I noticed in the pic.

When I was a kid, I was the only blond in the family and they used to claim I was the milkman's baby. I've always thought that was funny, but could be why I'm so twisted (mentally).

Love the C'aunt and C'uncle thing. It's hard to type though.

Anonymous said...

Hurah for the Internet, don't you think?


Mike
http://somethingaboutparenting.typepad.com/