Cousins

I’ve been thinking about…

Cousins.

I come from a small family. My mother had one brother who never married. My dad had one brother who had two sons who were older than me. The closest I came to cousins were vacations to my mother’s hometown where 2 nd cousins were playmates during those too short visits.

John grew up with a big family with not only grandparents, but aunts, uncles, and lots of cousins. I was enthralled with this close, affectionate family.

Now I am delighting in the next TWO generation of cousins in my own family.

Our children were the oldest cousins, which limited how much “buddy” stuff they could with the littler ones. Yet remarkably, three of them — from 3 different families — have settled in the same community. Now as adults, they have formed a wonderfully supportive — and fun — cousin network. Besides get togethers for special occasions, they have impromptu dinners and game nights, cat sit, provide back up rides when a car is in the shop…what family and good friends do for each other.

That’s what the cousin relationship seems to be. There is a family connection, but the bond comes from being friends.

One of the great joys of grandparenting is seeing this special cousin relationship grow with our grands. Five of our six are stairstep ages – now 7,8,9, 10 and 10 ½. Mac — at two — is the “caboose,” who has the loving attention of all of them! The two girls are big sisters to younger brothers, so they savor their girl time together. They call themselves “sister cousins.” The boys relish having buddies for Minecraft and engineering forts and mazes.

All of them now play “Liverpool,” a crazy rummy card game — the fourth generation of Ruddiman kids that have a passion for this raucous, zany game.

I’m thinking about cousins as we are headed to our annual family vaca together. Though we are in four different states, we are dedicated to having time together. Covid interrupted our annual vacation plans for a couple years, but we are back on track to spend a week with all the fun stuff that kids and families love to do in the summer. Beach and pools and games and adventures with go carts, mini-golf, fishing with PopPop — and “Liverpool!”

How much fun can one week hold? A lot! And memories that will last a lifetime for our “Cousin Crew.”