"A cousin is a ready-made friend for life."
I grew up with a very large family. I'd like to reword that. I was fortunate enough to grow up with a very large family. My father was 1 of 7 children, he also happens to be the oldest. My father had 2 kids (my sister and I). The rest of the siblings had 2-3 with the exception of 1 have one fabulous little man ♥ Each cousin has someone else within a few years apart so in a way our parents had us in groups, haha.
We all lived very close to one another growing up. I say very close because we had actually lived in a 4 family complex until I was 4 years old. After moving we all remained close. My cousins are my friends. As we've all gotten older, starting families, going off to college, moving away we have drifted a bit. A few years ago I had decided that I didn't want to wait until the Holidays to come around in order to see my cousins (that are within the same state). I put together what I soon would call 'Cousin's Night'. It didn't last long the first year as everyone's schedules were chaotic and I didn't realize how much work I would need to put into it.
Last year in January I told myself that if I was going to begin this monthly tradition I had to give it my all and stick with it. That I did until some unpleasant situations occurred last fall. Putting that all aside I'm happy to announce that last night was the kickoff. Cousin's Night 'Born Again'! It was fabulous. We had a Ping Pong tournament with the new table that Charlie and I bought.
I wanted to share the different activities I've put together since I began this tradition. Perhaps, it will give you ideas in case you'd like to begin something in your life ♥
**We had Karoake Night at my house. Holy cow, was that fun. I wasn't sure how everyone would feel. Hand me a mic and I'll sing and dance all night. Charlie hooked my laptop up to the TV and everything streamed on the big screen (okay not so big, but big enough to see the words).
**A Sunday afternoon we went Ice Skating. We all car pooled and went to a rink a few towns over and felt like kids again. We spent hours there and then after we drove to a yummy local pizza joint and stuffed ourselves!
**Cookout on our back deck late spring! I had bought sidewalk chalk so that my Cousin's kids were able to just relax and be creative. It was so cute as they put hopscotch together and drew pictures for each other. I'm not going to lie, us 'big kids' also had partaken in the sidewalk chalk fun!
**Bowling! What a fabulous time that was. It's always good times to laugh at each other with our silly bowling postures and terrible scores! Then you get the competitive nature from the fellows and it just gets better and better.
Needless to say I had wonderful weekend and I feel great to know that our Cousin's Night is back on track. Where it should be. I think it's so important to keep relationships alive. Family is key in life and as wonderful as Holidays can be, they're stressful and only last a few hours (realistically). This is something I feel very strongly about so I look forward to what's to come! I'm already planning the next few months. Knowing that warm weather and the friendly sun is on our side there's so much to choose from! ♥
